AliMC.WiWftniK^il 



HE PRESBYTERIA 



1 



>.> 



^ 



PULPIT 



0. 






*)0 






A MODEL CHRISTIAN 




flLS 



w Vv'.t > 



nHHHHT 



/p.w 



?JP 



BY 
REODORE LEDYARD CUYLER 

jLJ»JLJ* L Lj • JL/a 







Class (W 

Book 

Copyright^ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



A MODEL CHRISTIAN 



Gbe preebpterian pulpit 

* 



A MODEL CHRISTIAN 



BY 

THEODORE LEDYARD CUYLER, D.D., LL.D. 



-> „ O J i 



PHILADELPHIA 

PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION 
AND SABBATH-SCHOOL WORK 

I903 






THE LIBRARY OF 
CONfeRESS, 

Two Cowee Received 

OCT 19 1903 

Cl WHfOl H fcPMWV 



CLASS *- XXa No. 



^7 

cory a 



rr / n 



Copyright, 1903, by the Trustees of 
The Presbyterian Board of Publication and Sabbath- 
School Work 

Published October, iqoj 



The first two sermons in this collection have never appeared 
before in book form. The others are taken from the volume, 
" Stirring the Eagle's Nest," with the kind permission of the 
publishers, The Baker and Taylor Company. 

1 ' e 

C '' < • C * r C ' ' ' ' r , 

v >: : ' c «< -< ; : 

• « • * c • 






CONTENTS 



I. Barnabas — A Model Christian 

II. Burden-Bearing 

III. Pivot Battles in Life 

IV. The Little Coat 
> V. The Journey of a Day . 
VI. Jesus Only 

VII. Right Views of Things . 

VIII. The Dove That Found Rest 
1 



3 

21 

43 
6i 

79 

97 

"5 

133 



The first and third sermons in this volume have never appeared 
in book form. The others are taken from the volume " Stirring 
the Eagle's Nest," with the kind permission of the publishers, the 
Baker & Taylor Company, New York. 



A MODEL CHRISTIAN 



A MODEL CHRISTIAN 



BARNABAS— A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

" For he was a good man, and full of the Holy Ghost and of 
faith." — Acts xi. 24. 

Peter's vision at Joppa introduced a new era 
in human history. To the fisherman-apostle, as 
he kneeled at his noontide hour of devotion, was 
revealed the glorious truth that God is no re- 
specter of persons. This was not only the " gos- 
pel of democracy" for every land, leveling up all 
castes and classes into a common brotherhood 
before God ; it was a gospel of foreign missions 
which proclaimed that the Gentile had as good a 
right to the offer of eternal life as the children of 
Abraham. That vision of Peter's opened the way 
to the evangelization of western Asia as Paul's 
vision at Troas opened the way to the evangeli- 
zation of Europe. 

The persecution which arose on account of the 

3 



4 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

heroic martyr Stephen " scattered abroad " many 
new converts from Jerusalem, even as a sturdy 
blow of the blacksmith's sledge scatters the fiery 
sparks from the anvil. Some of them enter the 
maritime coast of Phoenicia ; some of them cross 
over to the luxurious and licentious island of 
Cyprus ; others move northward to the superb 
city of Antioch. These early pioneers of the 
cross were not commissioned by " boards " or 
other missionary organizations. The book of 
The Acts is mainly the record of individual 
efforts for the conversion of individual souls. 
The souls thus evangelized were in great centers 
of influence like Jerusalem, Ephesus, Rome, and 
Antioch. 

The American tourist who visits now the 
shrunken and miserable hamlet called Antdkia 
can form but a poor conception of what Antioch 
was in the days of its flashing splendor. It was 
the queen of the Orient, the capital of Syria, the 
third city in influence on the globe. Its popula- 
tion was about equal to that of Chicago to-day. 
Its natural situation was commanding, with the 
river Orontes flowing past it and the magnifi- 
cent mountains of Lebanon towering above its 
walls. Grecian art and Roman wealth had en- 
riched it with gorgeous temples of heathen dei- 



BARNABAS 5 

ties, with sumptuous baths and theaters, with 
elegant villas upon its hillsides, and with expen- 
sive aqueducts carried across its adjacent plains. 
No capital outside of Rome was more imperial 
in its splendor or more corrupted by wealth and 
sensuality. 

Among the mixed population of this Oriental 
mart of commerce were many Greeks. Some 
commentators insist that the word " Grecian " in 
the twentieth verse describes Hellenistic Jews. 
But as we are told in the previous verse that 
some of the gospel itinerants " preached the word 
to none but the Jews only," it is probable that 
this verse announces that the good news of salva- 
tion had begun to be offered to the Gentiles. 

An immediate blessing followed. The omnipo- 
tent " hand of the Lord was with " these earnest 
preachers of the truth. The instruments were 
human, the power was divine. We pastors and 
Sunday-school teachers can do nothing without 
God, and it is equally true that in our depart- 
ments God will do nothing without us. When 
God's hand and man's hand combine, then comes 
the spiritual harvest. The results which followed 
this pioneer preaching work at Antioch were of 
an admirable type, and a model of the best 
modern revivals. We are told that " a great num- 



6 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

ber believed, and turned unto the Lord." Ob- 
serve this process : the inward must precede the 
outward — the root must be planted before we can 
expect the tree. The root here is heart-faith in 
the crucified Jesus. As the result of this internal 
acceptance of Christ there was a conversion or 
" turning " from a life of sin to a life of serving 
Christ. When the hand of the Holy Spirit is 
laid on the helm the whole vessel swings round 
on its keel and " heads " in the opposite direction. 
We have no doubt that this fleet of new converts 
bore the colors of an open confession of Christ 
at the mast-head, and were all ready to go into 
action for Him at once. True conversion demands 
prompt confession and union with the church. 
As soon as a lamp is lighted let it straightway 
shine. 

Good news flies fast. Jerusalem was the head- 
quarters of Christianity, and what was going on at 
Antioch could not be kept long from the mother 
church. According to the literal rendering of 
the twenty-second verse, " the tidings concerning 
these things " (or converts) " was heard with the 
ears of the church which was in Jerusalem." In 
the judgment of that parent church the impor- 
tant work that had opened at Antioch demanded 
a master workman. 



BARNABAS 7 

The man whom the Jerusalem church selected 
to be the city missionary at Antioch, and after- 
wards the foreign missionary to Cyprus, has never 
received the high honor through after ages to 
which he is fairly entitled. In our humble judg- 
ment he stands next to Paul, as the second most 
remarkable character who is presented to us in 
the roll of converts after the days of Pentecost. 
A gratuitous slur has been cast upon him because 
he afterwards had a " contention " with Paul about 
certain matters ; but may it not be possible that 
in that contention Paul was as much in the wrong 
as Barnabas ? Good men may easily differ and 
often dispute warmly about the best method of 
prosecuting God's work. 

The original name of the gospel preacher who 
was delegated from Jerusalem was Joses or 
Joseph. As the brightest light is kindled on a 
point that comes out of a bed of charcoal, so this 
light-bearer of the gospel came out of one of the 
darkest regions of debauchery and idolatry. He 
was a native of the island of Cyprus. He was 
of a Levitical descent, but his country was pro- 
verbial for its licentiousness, and the name of 
" Cyprian " is to this day applied to one who has 
sinned away the purity of her womanhood. But 
as the sun can attract heavenward pure particles 



8 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

of moisture from a slimy pool, so God's grace 
elevates many human souls from very filthy sur- 
roundings. One of the earliest converts to the 
gospel of Calvary was Joseph the Cyprian ; and 
what a thorough out-and-out work was his con- 
version ! In our times we discover conversions 
of the head without a change of heart ; again, we 
see both head and heart renovated without much 
perceptible influence on the purse. But Joses 
was the subject of a spiritual revolution that 
reached to the bottom of his pocket. 

Make way for him as the pioneer of the noble 
army of generous givers for the gospel. He 
may be called the father of Christian beneficence, 
for he is the first one specifically named who, 
" having land, sold it, and brought the money, 
and laid it at the apostles' feet." The whole host 
of Christian givers — the Thorntons, the Pea- 
bodys, the Lenoxes, the Dodges, the Tappans, 
the Stuarts, and the Baldwins — are all the suc- 
cessors of this " son of consolation." In modern 
days we do not often hear of Christians who sell 
their real estate in order to fill Christ's treasury. 
The reason why there are so many stingy pro- 
fessors in our churches is that their hearts are 
not warm enough to thaw out their purses. 

With his new nature Joseph receives a new 



BARNABAS 9 

name. He is christened " Barnabas," which in 
our Authorized Version is translated a " son of 
consolation." This would bespeak a fine char- 
acter. " He who has consolation gives it, and he 
that gives consolation has it." 

This were an enviable cognomen for every 
pastor and Sunday-school teacher, whose offices 
are not only to instruct in the truth, but to visit 
their flocks and to heal the broken-hearted. The 
later Westminster revisers give to the name of 
Barnabas the more literal meaning, " son of ex- 
hortation," or of persuasion. This would describe 
him very happily as a zealous and successful ex- 
horter and preacher of the word. Being familiar 
with his gifts and his graces, the mother church 
at Jerusalem appointed him to "go as far as 
Antioch." 

On his arrival there he found himself in the 
midst of what we now designate a "work of 
grace." So visible and impressive was this 
mighty work that Luke tells us that Barnabas 
" saw the grace of God " — i. e., the manifest 
effects of the Holy Spirit's power in the conver- 
sion of heathen idolaters. This gladdened his 
heart with an unselfish and inspiring joy. Noth- 
ing quickens the hungry soul of a true minister 
or Sabbath-school laborer like visible results. 



io A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

The spiritual atmosphere is charged with a sort 
of Divine electricity. It is a luxury to fish when 
the gospel net incloses a great multitude of 
fishes, yet he is not worthy of the name of 
Christ's servant who is not willing to spend the 
labor of a life to win even one precious soul from 
the pains of hell. 

Barnabas comes in no jealous or fault-finding 
temper to criticise the labors of others ; he re- 
joiced in the rich results already achieved, and 
"exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart 
they would cleave unto the Lord." Some ancient 
authorities read, "that they would cleave unto 
the purpose of their heart in the Lord." He di- 
rected them immediately to Christ, and bade 
them cleave fast to Him. He taught those awak- 
ened souls that faith was a transaction by which 
they joined their own weakness unto Christ's 
strength, their unworthiness to His merits, and 
their guiltiness to His full, pardoning grace. The 
atoning blood not only cleansed — it cemented. 
This is the secret of the only religion that holds 
out ; and it holds out because it holds on to Him 
who declares that " none shall be able to pluck 
them out of My hand." 

We always know what manner of spirit a man 
is of when we ascertain what gladdens him the 



BARNABAS 1 1 

most or what grieves him the most deeply. Bar- 
nabas " was glad" to see these early fruits of the 
gospel of the cross. " For he was a good man, 
and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith." The 
Bible is chary of personal eulogies, and leaves us 
to form our estimate of men's character by their 
conduct. I do not now recall any laudations of 
Paul or Peter or the beloved John such as sur- 
viving partiality often inscribes on the tombs of 
the departed. But here is an encomium, uttered 
by the Holy Spirit, that would outshine burnished 
gold if it were carved on the monument of any 
servant of God. Brethren, how sweetly might 
you and I sleep in our last narrow bed if over our 
dust the Divine hand could write, " A good man, 
and full of the Holy Ghost." This description 
does not imply miraculous inspiration ; it simply 
describes what is attainable by the humblest 
Christian here, for we are all commanded to be 
filled with the Spirit. In proportion as we are 
emptied of pride and self-seeking may we be 
filled to the brim with the Divine indwelling — yes, 
filled unto all the fullness of God. 

The harvest soon becomes too great in Antioch 
for any one man to gather, for " much people was 
added unto the Lord." Please to mark this ex- 
pression well. The narrative does not say that 



12 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

many people joined the church, but that many 
people joined Christ. When a soul has joined it- 
self to Jesus then union with His church is the 
most natural step imaginable. Barnabas finds that 
the gospel net is becoming so full that he requires 
a partner to assist him in drawing it to land. He 
has in his eye a new convert who is not very far 
away — one who is in the prime of his powerful 
manhood, and one who has a prodigious driving- 
wheel in his mental machinery. Once before l 
he had introduced this same extraordinary con- 
vert to the leaders of the church in Jerusalem. 
So he departs from Antioch to Tarsus to look 
for Saul. When Sir Humphry Davy was asked 
what was the greatest discovery he had ever made, 
he replied, " It was young Michael Faraday." 
To the quick eye of Barnabas was due the honor 
of first recognizing the fiery vigor, the intrepid 
courage, and the indomitable zeal of him who 
was yet to be the very chiefest of the apostles. 

Since Saul — who had not yet received the fa- 
miliar name of Paul — had left Caesarea we have 
lost track of him. He seems to have returned to 
his native city of Tarsus in Cilicia. How long he 
had been residing there, or what occupation he 
was pursuing there, the inspired history does not 

1 Acts ix. 27. 



BARNABAS 13 

inform us. He may have been intent upon his 
sacred studies in preparation for his after-work, or 
he may have been undergoing a portion of that 
discipline to which he refers in his subsequent 
Epistle to the Corinthians. Quite likely it is that 
he was not idle among his neighbors, for we are 
informed afterwards that there were churches in 
Cilicia, and he may have had a hand in planting 
them. 

I am inclined to think that Saul was not in 
Tarsus when Barnabas reached there, because the 
Greek word translated " seek " signifies a sharp 
search, as though Barnabas had some trouble to 
find him. When he did capture the prize he 
" brought him unto Antioch " with the happy feel- 
ing of one who has found great spoil. At once 
they enter upon their work, Barnabas and Saul, in 
holy and loving partnership, " assembling them- 
selves with the church " for worship and for work. 
Their chief business was spiritual instruction in the 
elementary truths of Christianity. Not with sen- 
sational claptrap or curiosity-seeking devices did 
they aim to attract popular attention. They 
simply "taught" their auditors, but taught them 
with such winsome skill and affectionate zeal that 
they had " much people " to listen to them. 
Literally translated, they had a "sufficient 



H A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

crowd." The word implies a miscellaneous con- 
gregation of rich and poor, cultured and igno- 
rant, from the various classes of society. No 
splendid sanctuary gave them shelter ; no costly 
music baited their aesthetic appetites ; no luxuri- 
ous pews invited the rich while the poor were 
kept standing at the gates ; none of the ecclesias- 
tical pomps and pageantries of modern worship 
had yet intruded into the sweet, primitive sim- 
plicity of apostolic Christianity. Two anointed 
preachers, filled with the heavenly unction, stood 
up and proclaimed Christ crucified and Christ 
risen from the dead. If any of the assembly 
were troubled with difficulties, they asked ques- 
tions and the two teachers answered them. 
Psalms and spiritual songs were sung, fervent 
prayers were offered, and alms were distributed to 
the poor. On every first day of the week those 
Antioch disciples gathered for an " agape," or 
love feast, and with simple fragments of bread 
and cups filled with the fruit of the vine they 
commemorated the dying love of their blessed 
Lord. From beginning to end their Sabbath ser- 
vices, their week-day work, their preaching, their 
prayers and their social fellowship, all tasted of 
Christ. The aroma of Christ pervaded every- 
thing. They knew nothing of theological systems 



BARNABAS 15 

— they knew only one divine Person; they just 
believed, and preached, and loved, and lived out 
the Lord Jesus Christ. 

With the new nature came a new name. Hith- 
erto the followers of Jesus had been known as 
His " disciples." Sometimes they were sneered 
at as " Nazarenes " or " Galilaeans," but they 
always spoke of each other as " the brethren " or 
as " the saints " or as " the faithful in Christ 
Jesus." A new word was coined at Antioch ; for 
there, we are told, the disciples were first called 
Christians. The coinage is not their own ; it was 
a nickname invented by their enemies and flung 
at them as a reproach. The Jews did not invent 
it, for they would not admit that the crucified 
Galilaean had been the Christ, the anointed 
Prophet of God. The word has a Roman ending, 
and probably came from those who used the 
Latin tongue. Just as the name of Puritan or of 
Methodist was first bestowed in ridicule and after- 
wards worn as a title of nobility, so the name 
Christian was scornfully applied to the new sect 
as a term of ignominy. As Farrar finely re- 
marks, " An hybrid and insulting designation was 
invented in the frivolous streets of Antioch, and 
round it have clustered forever the deepest faith 
and the purest glory of mankind." Scoffer of 



16 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

Antioch, we thank thee for that word " Chris- 
tian." The prophecies of the ancient seers, the 
light of Bethlehem's star, the precious power of 
Calvary's blood, the dawn of the resurrection 
morn, the devotion of the early martyrs, the 
civilizations of the best peoples of the globe, the 
mission schemes of all times, and the redemption 
of the race — are all linked with that glorious 
name. It is the enduring witness that our salva- 
tion stands not in a system, but in a Person, the 
ineffable and almighty Christ Jesus. Whoever 
would be saved must be Christ's man. 

Having narrated the signal services of Barna- 
bas and Paul at Antioch, the chapter concludes 
with an account of a visit made by certain 
prophets, or inspired teachers, from Jerusalem. 
They come to warn the church at Antioch that a 
famine is approaching. The chief object of nar- 
rating this prophecy would seem to be its beauti- 
ful illustration of Christian beneficence. A relief 
fund is raised by the Antioch brethren, and the 
rule of giving was the golden rule for all right 
giving to the end of time. Here it is : " Every 
man gave according to his ability." The measure 
of his purse was the measure of his charity, and 
nobody robbed himself of the luxury of con- 



BARNABAS 17 

tributing. When the Antioch rule is thoroughly 
practiced by Christians in America there will be a 
speedy end of raising money for the Lord's 
treasury " by hook and by crook " — a system 
which often practices petty larceny and then 
varnishes it with the sacred name of charity. 
Promptly was the money raised and put into the 
hands of Barnabas and Paul ; they, in turn, de- 
livered it to the presbyters or elders of the 
church at Jerusalem. This is the first time that 
the New Testament mentions the important office 
of " elder " — an office which was essential in the 
Jewish Church, and has been and will be a per- 
manent office in the church of Christ as long as 
it endures. From the name of that office comes 
our venerable and honored name of Presbyterians. 
Having now walked round this goodly and 
fruit-laden tree of Antioch, let us give it one 
hearty shake, and the following truths will drop 
like ripe apples into our laps : — 

1. The devil always outwits himself when he 
persecutes God's people. The blood of Stephen 
the martyr was the seed of the churches of Syria. 

2. The only preaching that ever saves a sinner 
from hell is that which wrought such wonders at 
Antioch ; it is simply and faithfully " preaching 
the Lord Jesus." 



1 8 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

3. Spiritual success is secured only when God 
and man work together in partnership. If the 
" hand of the Lord " is withheld, the hand of the 
strongest man is paralyzed. 

4. The only title worthy your ambition or mine 
is this : " He was a good man, and full of the 
Holy Ghost and of faith." It is a great thing 
to have a church of men modeled after such a 
pattern as Barnabas. 

5. " Cleaving unto the Lord Jesus " is the true 
secret of the higher life. When my weak, wicked 
heart is grafted, by faith, into His bleeding heart, 
then doth the blood of the Vine flow into the branch. 

6. The only name that you or I can ever carry 
in through the gate of heaven will be the name 
of Christian. If we are not willing to bear it as 
a cross, we never can wear it as a crown. 

7. The golden word that shines through the 
whole passage we have studied is the word give. 
The master-spirit of the Antioch church was a 
bountiful giver ; he gave his real estate, and then 
gave himself. The first recorded act of that 
church was that " every man gave according to 
his ability." Never could there have been a 
Christian in Antioch or a Christian here had not 
God given His only begotten Son, and had not 
that Son given His life a ransom for us all. 



II 

BURDEN-BEARING 



II 

BURDEN-BEARING 

" Every man shall bear his own burden." — GALATIANS vi. 5. 
" Bear ye one another's burdens." — Galatians vi. 2. 
" Cast thy burden upon the Lord." — Psalm lv. 22. 

Here is a threefold cord that is not easily 
broken. I trust that you will all grasp hold of 
it and be lifted out of your cares and complain- 
ings, out of your doubts and your despondencies. 
While there is an apparent contradiction between 
these three texts, there is not really the slightest 
discordance. They blend beautifully together 
like the bass, the tenor, and the alto in some 
sweet melody. God's truth has no discords. 
Errors conflict with each other, but all truths run 
parallel like railway tracks, that might belt the 
globe and never come in conflict. 

With this preliminary fact in mind, let us study 
these passages. They treat of the bearing of 
burdens. Can any topic be more thoroughly 
practical ? For every human life — high or hum- 
ble — has its loads ; and much of the comfort, the 

21 



22 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

strength, and the joy of our lives depends upon 
the way that these loads are dealt with. Which 
of them ought to be carried, and which of them 
none of us should attempt to carry, is a question 
that ought to be examined. How to make our 
own loads the lighter, and how to relieve other 
people of their burdens, is another question to be 
carefully considered. Upon these questions a vast 
deal of heavenly light streams in through the 
triple windows now opened before us. 

I. The first of the texts to be looked at is this : 
" Every man shall bear his own burden." We 
are too apt to regard burden-bearing as some- 
thing menial or degrading. But this is a great 
mistake. God has so ordered it that no station 
in life is exempt from its inevitable loads. Many 
years ago, during the days of the " old dispensa- 
tion," I was visiting a hospitable planter on the 
Savannah River. He took me out to see a com- 
pany of his negro slaves, who were carrying bags 
of rice on their heads to freight a vessel which 
was moored at the riverside. They were carry- 
ing their burdens, and cheering their task by 
chanting a wild negro melody. After he returned 
to his mansion, the planter said to me, " It is a 
tremendous responsibility to be the owner of a 
hundred human beings." There was his burden. 



BURDEN-BEARING 23 

Perhaps some of you merchants envy your book- 
keepers or your porters who have only to carry 
on their tale of labor, and to receive their wages. 
They, in turn, may often say, "What an easy 
time our employer has ! He performs no drudg- 
ery; he sits in his countingroom, signs checks, 
and then rides home to his fine house in his car- 
riage." Yet on your busy and often overworked 
brain depends the continuance of their salaries. 
For so has God wedded capital and labor to- 
gether, and what God hath joined, let no dema- 
gogues tear asunder ! 

Some burdens are inseparably attached to us, 
and deliverance from them were as impossible as 
to exist without eating or sleeping. Every boy 
at school must task himself with words of one 
syllable at first, and so on, with advancing years, 
must advance into more difficult lessons. If he 
shoulders up the calf he will gain each year in- 
creasing strength, until in time he can carry the 
full-grown bullock. Every lot in life must answer 
to the roll call of duty. There is no discharge in 
that war ; and behind every horseman sits dark- 
browed Care. Sorrow also is no respecter of 
persons. It puts aching heads under royal 
crowns, and aching hearts on beds of down and 
couches of rosewood. Perhaps, during your 



24 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

summer outings you may have seen some pictur- 
esque mansion reposing on its sunny lawns, and 
surrounded with its wealth of foliage ; and you 
have said to yourself, " Happy is the owner of 
that house ; I wish it were mine." Ah, my friend, 
the owner of that superb residence is only a man ; 
and where man lives sin dwells and sorrow dwells 
likewise. We pastors find out that none of our 
flock build walls high enough to shut out dis- 
ease, disaster, or death ; and there is never a 
house without some " skeleton in a closet." 
Every heart knoweth its own bitterness. As no 
one can take your toothache into his face, so no 
one can take your heartache into his bosom. 

This text has manifold applications. As no 
one can feel the twinge of my pain — bodily or 
mental — so no one can do my work but myself. 
You may engage a dozen assistants for a busy 
pastor, but all combined cannot lift off an ounce 
of his responsibility ; the strain finally falls back 
upon his nerves and his conscience. The bodily 
infirmities that we all suffer, to a greater or less 
degree, are often a heavy clog. My beloved 
friend Spurgeon often hobbled in intense agony 
to that pulpit which he flooded with sunshine. 
Cheerful old Paul had his physical load to carry, 
and he exclaims. " We that are in this tabernacle 



BURDEN-BEARING 25 

[or tent] do groan, being burdened." With 
what ? With a sense of guilt or dread of hell ? 
No ; that load had been left where we may leave 
ours, at the foot of Calvary's cross. But the 
fleshly hut, in which Paul's imperial soul was 
locked up, was scarred with the lash, and full of 
aches and thorns in the flesh. Yet under this 
burden of bodily pain, and of the " care of all the 
churches," and of crosses that galled the shoul- 
der, the grand old hero marched on to glory, 
shouting. There is not a blood-bought heir of 
heaven in this assembly who ought not to shout 
as loud as he did. 

A true Christian grows stronger by his loads. 
Train up your boy on confectioneries, and never 
lay fifty pounds weight on him, and the poor, 
flabby little creature will be all pulp. Give him 
stiff tasks to do and heavy loads to carry, and he 
may have some chance of being yet a man. In 
that way God deals with His children. He 
knows that burdens will make them strong. So 
He says to each of them : " Every one shall bear 
his own burden. There is thy load, carry it ; 
there is thy place, fill it ; there is thy work, do it ; 
and as thy day, so shall thy strength be." The 
route to heaven is not over a macadamized road 
with easy grades. It has many a " hill difficulty," 



26 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

where the climber goeth from running to walk- 
ing, and from walking to a tough clambering on 
his hands and knees. Let us not murmur, nor 
vainly ask for " elevators " to hoist us ; for one, I 
have lived long enough in this world to thank 
God for difficulties. The grapple with them 
sinews our graces and gives us spiritual force. In 
God's school some hard lessons are to be 
learned ; and there are no " elective studies." It 
is very pleasant to work out problems in addition 
and in multiplication ; but when our Master puts 
us into a painful problem of subtraction — when 
the income is cut off, or the crib is emptied, or 
the staff is broken — then we cry out, " O God, 
let this cup pass from me." It requires great 
grace to be able then to say, " Nevertheless, 
Father; not as I will, but as Thou wilt!" For 
the hardest lesson of all in this world is — to let 
God have His way. 

The Master's command to His disciples has 
evermore been, " Go work in My vineyard." 
This is not merely for the crop to be raised there, 
but for the invigoration of our spiritual sinews 
and to utilize our powers. A work for every 
man, and every man to his work, is the law of 
honest discipleship. There is another like unto 
it, " Take up thy cross, and follow Me." Why ? 



BURDEN-BEARING 27 

Because we are yet in a sin-cursed world, and the 
word sin and the word cross are twin brothers. 
Where sin is there must be an attendant cross — 
whether it be my own sin to plague me, or that 
of others to try my patience or to arouse my 
efforts to save them. There is no house room for 
crosses in heaven ; and simply because sin has 
never entered those pearly portals. Here, in this 
world of sharp antagonisms, the crucial test is, 
"Whosoever doth not take up his cross, and 
follow Me, cannot be My disciple." 

Now, these are ultimate facts, verified by every 
Christian's experience. The Captain of our sal- 
vation has ordered that each one of us shall en- 
dure hardness as good soldiers — that every one 
must shoulder his own weapons and bear his own 
brunt in the bivouac and the battle. And all this 
regimen is indispensable to the growth of the 
soul in spiritual force, and to the development of 
the grandest thing this side of heaven, and that 
is — pure, vigorous and Christlike character. It is 
not to their credit, nor for the honor of their 
Master that some Christians seek to hide their 
own indolence or unbelief under that other in- 
junction, " Cast thy burden upon the Lord." 
Every text in this book hath its own place and its 
own purpose. No truth overlaps or obscures or 



28 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

contradicts another. There are certain burdens 
that no fellow-creature can carry for us, and that 
our Lord and Saviour never offers to carry. His 
imperative command is, " Every man shall bear 
his own burden " ; and the object of this is that 
he may become strong in the Lord. 

II. After this brief study of the first text, let us 
now look at the second, which does not contra- 
dict, but rather confirms it. " Bear ye one an- 
other's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." 
We have just seen how the carrying of certain 
loads gives us strength. But there are other 
loads which we can help our fellow-pilgrims to 
carry, and the object of that service is to teach us 
sympathy. Happily we have the motive for this 
brotherly service given in the text itself. We are 
thus to " fulfill the law of Christ." That law is 
love. Yes, Jesus Christ Himself is love. He so 
loved us that He bore our sins in His own body 
on the tree. He so loved the wandering sheep 
that He descended from the skies to seek for and 
to save the silly truant that was entangled in the 
thickets or foundering in the mire. And when 
He lays it on His shoulders — the clean bearing 
the unclean, the Holy bearing the unholy — He 
brings it back to the fold, " rejoicing." He is 
glad for the sake of the restored sheep, but still 



BURDEN-BEARING 29 

more for His own sake — love has its own ecstasy 
of reward. You will remember how our hearts 
were thrilled when Mr. Sankey first sang for us 
that exquisite paraphrase of the parable : — 

" There were ninety-and-nine that safely lay 

In the shelter of the fold, 
But one was out on the hills away, 

Far off from the gates of gold — 
Away on the mountains wild and bare, 

Away from the tender Shepherd's care. 

" But none of the ransomed ever knew 

How deep were the waters cross' d ; 
Nor how dark was the night that the Lord pass'd thro' 

Ere He found His sheep that was lost. 
Out in the desert He heard its cry — 

Sick and helpless, and ready to die. 

" But all thro' the mountains, thunder-riven, 

And up from the rocky steep, 
There arose a glad cry to the gate of heaven, 

' Rejoice ! I have found My sheep !' 
And the angels echoed around the throne, 

' Rejoice, for the Lord brings back His own !' " 

Brings back His own ! redeemed by His own 
precious blood for the joy set before Him ! If 
you and I, fellow-sinners, are ever landed safe 
among the ringing trumpets and the sounding 
harps in glory, it will be entirely because that 
loving Shepherd has brought back His own. 



30 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

As Jesus Christ came to the rescue of the per- 
ishing, so He bids us hasten to the relief of the 
overloaded and the recovery of the fallen. This 
is His law of love. Yonder, for example, is a 
poor wretch who is reeling down to perdition 
under the weight of his own folly and sin. Sharp- 
eyed Selfishness says : " Good enough for him ; 
why was he such a fool as to drink ?" Jesus says : 
" Go pull out of the fire that man for whom I 
have died !" That is sympathy in action. When 
the Good Samaritan found the bleeding Jew by 
the wayside, he did not insult the sufferer with 
the taunt, " You ought to have known better 
than to travel by this dangerous road alone." 
He takes up the burden of the wounded body, 
and, when he reaches the inn, he slips the shilling 
into the keeper's hands, and delicately whispers, 
" If thou spendest more, when I come back again, 
I will repay thee." There spake the prince of 
gentlemen ; for true politeness is kindness of heart 
kindly expressed. 

The law of Christian sympathy works in two 
directions : either it helps our fellow-creatures to 
get rid of their burdens entirely, or, if failing in 
that, it helps them to carry the load more lightly. 
Yonder is a poor widow with more children than 
she can feed and clothe. Take one of those lads 



BURDEN-BEARING 31 

into your shop or warehouse, and let that widow's 
thanks sweeten your cup and soften your pillow. 
A youth comes to you from the country, friend- 
less and seeking employment. Just as on a rail- 
way one inch at the switch determines whether 
the train shall move on its straight track or be 
shunted over an embankment, so a single sym- 
pathetic act of helpfulness to that youth may 
decide his whole future for weal or woe. The 
Lord makes some of His servants rich, or strong, 
or kind, in order to be His switch-tenders. Here 
are you, worshiping in a well-manned and affluent 
church. Yonder is a feeble church struggling for 
existence. Divide your forces with them, and 
make both churches the richer; one by what it 
gives, and the other by what it gets. 

As I have said already, there is one sense in 
which sorrow can be borne only by the sufferer 
himself; there is another in which that sorrow 
can be lightened by your tender sympathy. Bear 
ye one another's burdens. Sometimes a small lift 
is very timely. A single kind word, a little oil of 
sympathy on a sore spot, a message of condo- 
lence when crape hangs at the doorbell, a gift in 
the hour of need, an approving smile, all such 
things do help a fellow-creature most wonder- 
fully. It is to the reproach of us all that we do 



32 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

not oftener act the Good Samaritan in little 
things. 

Some of you may recall that beautiful incident 
narrated by our noble American missionary to 
the Orient, Miss Fidelia Fiske. She tells us that 
on a warm Sabbath afternoon she was seated on 
the earthen floor of her mission-chapel and feel- 
ing utterly exhausted. " Just then, as God would 
order it, a Syrian woman came and seated herself 
right behind me, so that I could lean on her, and 
she invited me to do so. I declined, but she drew 
me back and said, ' If you love me, lean hard.' 
Very refreshing was that support. Then came 
the Master's own voice, ' If you love me, lean 
hard'; and I leaned on Him too, for He had 
preached to me through that poor woman. I was 
rested before the service was over ; then I spent 
an hour with the woman and, after sunset, rode 
six miles to my own home. I wondered that I 
was not weary that night, and I have rested ever 
since on those sweet words." They belonged to 
the choicest vocabulary of love. Many a mother 
has had the same thought as she pressed her 
infant to her bosom. More than one true-hearted 
husband, as he lifted from the couch the pre- 
cious burden — which he sadly found was growing 
lighter every day — has whispered into eager ears, 



BURDEN-BEARING 33 

" My darling, if you love me, lean hard." Love 
likes to feel the weight of trust. 

This beautiful " law of Christ " was the germi- 
nal principle from which sprang the primitive 
Christian Church. The power from on high 
which descended at Pentecost was essentially a 
love-power. Those unselfish men and women, 
who went forth from that upper room in Jerusa- 
lem, were burden-lifters in the name and in the 
strength of Him who had just borne the burden 
of human guilt in His bleeding body on the 
cross. The only genuine successors of the 
apostles have been the load-lifters. Their creed 
and watchword have always been, " Unto Him 
that loved us and loosed us from our sins by His 
blood ; to Him be the glory and the dominion for 
ever and ever !" Every stream of Christian sym- 
pathy that has gladdened human hearts came 
from this Divine fount-head in the heart of Jesus. 
All labors to lighten the overload of human 
guilt and misery and want — the enlightenment of 
the ignorant, the Tightening of the wronged, the 
deliverance of the oppressed, the visitation of the 
sick, and comforting of the bereaved, the gospel- 
ing of the heathen and the whole magnificent 
enterprise of missions ; all these are the precious 
product of this principle, " Bear ye one another's 
3 



34 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ!' The 
most successful missionaries and ministers are 
those who come closest to human hearts. The 
secret of power with General Booth and his " Sal- 
vationists " is their personal sympathy with the 
wretched and the wrecked. When the members 
of our churches become " sons of consolation " in 
the broadest sense of the word — bestowing not 
only their dollars but their time, their presence, 
and their heart-beats upon the unchristianized 
masses, we shall have a primitive and pentecostal 
revival. Pulpits speak only for an hour or two 
each week, and then only to those who occupy 
the pews before them; it is only by sermons in 
shoes that the suffering and the sinning can be 
reached. The need of the time is not for more 
geniuses in the pulpit, but for more personal con- 
secration among Christians to this " law of 
Christ." 

III. Let us push on now to the third and last 
of this beautiful triplet of texts. The first one 
taught self-help : " Every man shall bear his own 
burden." The object of it is to give us spiritual 
strength. The second text teaches brotherly 
help : " Bear ye one another's burdens." The 
object of it is to inspire sympathy. Of these three 
texts the third is the Kohinoor jewel ; for it leads 



BURDEN-BEARING 35 

us up to the Divine help : " Cast thy burden upon 
the Lord." 

This passage has suffered at the hands of some 
mystics, who have volatilized it into a very thin 
and vaporous meaning. The Hebrew word trans- 
lated " burden," really signifies that which is 
given to us, or that which is appointed to every 
man to bear. We must, therefore, understand the 
Psalmist to say — whatever thy God lays upon 
thee, thou must lay it upon the Lord. He has 
cast thy lot for thee. Then cast thy lot upon 
Him. 

But can this text be reconciled with the two 
others ? Yes ; quite easily. We are commanded 
to bear our own burdens, and this requires 
the resolute performance of our own duties. 
God will not release us from duty; but He 
will sustain us in the doing of it. The load 
which is laid upon us will not crush us ; for He 
will give us strength equal to our day. If other 
people wonder why and how we march along 
under the load without breaking down, our only 
answer is : " We put this load upon the strength 
which God put into us. His grace was sufficient 
to enable us to bear the burden." God's wonder- 
ful and gracious offer is to lighten our loads by 
putting Himself, as it were, into our souls, and 



36 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

underneath the loads. This is a supernatural 
process ; and the whole walk of faith through 
life is the simple but sublime reliance upon an al- 
mighty arm that is never seen but always felt. 
This accounts for the fact that the word " trust " 
is the key word of Old-Testament theology, and 
the word " believe " is the key word in the New 
Testament. They both mean substantially the 
same thing. And when our heavenly Father 
saith, " Cast thy burden upon Me," and our loving 
Redeemer saith, " Cast the load of thy sins upon 
Me," they expect us to take them at their word. 

There is a universal and perpetual need for this 
tonic text. 

On every side we meet overloaded people, and 
each one thinks his burden is the biggest. One 
is worried about his health, and another about his 
diminished income, and another about her sick 
child, and another about her children yet uncon- 
verted ; and so each man or woman that has a 
worry of some sort goes staggering along under 
it. In the meantime a loving and omnipotent 
Father says to every one of them : " Cast thy 
burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee." 
As if this one offer were not enough, the Holy 
Spirit repeats it again in the New Testament : 
" Casting all your anxieties upon Him, for He 



BURDEN-BEARING 37 

careth for you." This is the more accurate ren- 
dering in the Revised Version ; because the word 
" care " does not signify here wise forethought for 
the future, but that soul-harassing thing called 
" worry." The reason given for rolling our wor- 
ries over upon God is very tender and touching. 
" He careth for you " means that He takes an 
interest in you — He has you on His heart ! 
Beautiful and wonderful thought ! It is the same 
idea which the Psalmist had in his mind when he 
declares that the Lord telleth the number of the 
stars, and yet He healeth the broken in heart and 
bindeth up their wounds. 

He is the one who says, " My child, don't carry 
that burden." The infinite Ruler of the universe, 
who is wise in counsel and wonderful in working ; 
the God who guarded the infant Moses in his 
basket of rushes ; who sent His messenger birds 
to Elijah by the brook Cherith ; who quieted 
Daniel among the ravenous beasts and calmed 
Paul in the raging tempest — He it is who says to 
us, " Roll your anxieties over on Me, for I have 
you on My heart." Yet how many of us there 
are who hug our troubles and say to God, " No, 
we will not let anybody carry these troubles but 
ourselves." What fools we are ! Just imagine a 
weary, foot-sore traveler tugging along with his 



38 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

pack on a hot July day. A wagon comes up, and 
the kind-hearted owner calls out : " Friend, you 
look tired. Toss that pack into my wagon." But 
the wayfarer, eyeing him suspiciously, mutters to 
himself, " Perhaps he wants to steal it," or else 
sullenly replies, " I am obliged to you, sir, but I 
can carry my own luggage." The folly of such 
conduct is equal to that of the man who should 
check his trunk through to Chicago and then 
run into the baggage car every hour to see if his 
trunk is safe. We do not hesitate to trust our 
own valuable property to railway officials and ex- 
pressmen, and we laugh at the folly of those who 
refuse to do it ; would it not be well then for us 
to " check through " all our dearest interests as 
well as our cares ? When we reach the door of 
our Father's house we shall find that all our 
treasures worth keeping are safe, and that not one 
of them has been lost by the way. 

I cannot close this discourse without reminding 
you that the mightiest burden that can ever weigh 
down a human soul is Sin ! Everything else 
seems light by comparison. Poverty, friendless- 
ness, reproach, sickness, bereavement, all can be, 
and have been, endured cheerfully ; and the valley 
of the death-shade has often rung with songs of 
triumph. But who can stand up under that 



BURDEN-BEARING 39 

weight that has crushed myriads into hell ? 
Who can bear through life, and on up to the 
judgment seat, an evil conscience and a guilty, 
unpardoned soul? 

Here comes in the sweetest and the sublimest 
truth in all the realm of Divine revelation. Listen 
to it, all ye sin-burdened ones ! If all the rest of 
our Bible were torn away from us, we could find 
enough to inspire our hope and to insure our 
heaven in this one glorious verse, " All we like 
sheep have gone astray; we have turned every 
one to his own way ; and the Lord hath laid on 
Him the iniquity of us all." Surely He hath 
borne our griefs and carried our sorrows, and 
with His stripes we are healed. Jesus, the Divine 
Burden-bearer, is the sublime and ineffably lov- 
able figure that I now present before you. All 
the paths of the gospel lead to Calvary. Does 
any one of you cry out, " Mine iniquities have 
gone over my head, and as a heavy burden, they 
are too heavy for me " ? Listen to that match- 
less voice, " Come unto me, all you who are 
weary and heavyladen, and I will give you rest." 

Oh, I pray for some practical and lasting fruits 
from these triple texts. I long to behold all of 
you lifted by this threefold cord out of your griefs 
and out of your guilt. Methinks I see some 



40 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

poor burdened heart pass out of yonder door 
saying : — 

" I lay my griefs on Jesus, 

My burdens and my cares ; 
He from the load releases, 
He all my sorrows shares." 

There is another whose load is the heaviest of 
all ; for he came hither " condemned already " by 
his conscious guilt. The Holy Spirit has opened 
his eyes to behold the Lamb of God who taketh 
away sin ; and he has opened his heart to the 
Saviour. He will go homeward to-day singing 
this new song : — 

" I've laid my sins on Jesus, 

The spotless Lamb of God, 
He bears them all, and frees us 

From the accursed load. 
I've brought my guilt to Jesus, 

To wash my crimson stains 
White in His blood most precious 

Till not a stain remains !" 



Ill 

PIVOT BATTLES IN LIFE 



Ill 

PIVOT BATTLES IN LIFE 

" And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the 
Lord hearkened unto the voice of a man : for the Lord fought 
for Israel." — Joshua x. 14. 

With these words concludes the narrative of 
that decisive battle which gave Canaan into the 
hands of the children of Israel. There were 
other conflicts, indeed, before this battle. There 
were several after it — fierce conflicts and furious. 
But on this battle of Gibeon the whole campaign 
turned as on a pivot. Victory there proved to be 
victory everywhere, until Israel's land of promise 
became Israel's land of possession. 

And so the civil and martial history of the 
world has turned on a few decisive battles. Had 
they resulted differently, the whole history of 
mankind might have been changed. On the 
field of Marathon, for example, Greece was saved 
from the heel of Persian despotism. On the field 
of Arbela Alexander conquered the Oriental 
world. The question whether Britons or French- 

43 



44 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

men should rule France was determined when 
Joan of Arc, in her snow-white armor, rode her 
coal-black steed up the heights of Orleans. The 
battle of Marengo placed the iron crown on Na- 
poleon's brow ; Waterloo swept it off, and sent 
the desolator to the prison rock of St. Helena. 
Our Revolutionary War lasted through eight 
long weary years, and had its dark nights when 
the patriot father would "put none but Ameri- 
cans on guard " ; but the whole war turned on 
the pivot of Saratoga. All these battles just 
named were decisive. They settled the fate of 
empires or of dynasties. Had they resulted 
differently the history of the world would have 
had a very different reading. God so ordered it, 
in His wise providence, that mighty results hung 
on the issue of those encounters. Kingdoms, 
systems, dynasties were balanced on the point of 
a sword. 

Now every man is a miniature nation, and 
every human life has its one or more decisive 
battles. They are like Joshua's conflict at 
Gibeon. There is no day like those days, either 
before or after them, in all that man's existence. 

It is my purpose to discuss those moral con- 
flicts on which depends the destiny of souls for 
time and for eternity. I cannot, of course, in one 



PIVOT BATTLES IN LIFE 45 

brief sermon review all the conflicts of soul to 
which each one may be exposed throughout a 
lifetime. But I will try to indicate the principle 
struggles of life — what they are, and how to 
make these moral battle grounds scenes of glori- 
ous victory. 

And, at the outset, I would observe that every 
effective influential life is marked with sharp and 
severe struggles. There is but one way to avoid 
these, and that is to sacrifice living to bare exist- 
ence. Such a thing is possible. I can show you 
human beings whose existence is as meaningless 
and monotonous as that of an oyster. To sleep 
through so many hours, to feed the body so 
many times a day, to walk over a certain dreary 
routine of uselessness, and at last to drop through 
into an unnoticed grave and be buried forever, 
makes up the sum of the only existence that 
some immortal beings ever accomplish. But life 
is quite a different matter. And the loftier, the 
grander the life, the more eventful is it in conflicts. 
All history teaches this. Every day's observa- 
tion confirms it. Daniel, the conqueror of lions 
in the den, and of imperial brutes in the Baby- 
lonian palace ; Ezra, the Jewish reformer, Paul, 
the peerless, preacher of the cross, Augustine, 
Knox, Luther, Palissy the Huguenot, Bunyan, 



46 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

Clarkson, Payson— were they not all men of 
strife and struggle ? They were type-men, model 
men, not perfect, indeed, but earnestly pressing 
toward the fullness of the stature of Jesus Christ. 
And their entire careers turned on a few decisive 
encounters. Had those critical conflicts of soul 
resulted differently, it is not unlikely that we 
should never have heard these now celebrated 
names at all. There is an especial reason why 
every strong impressive life should be one of con- 
flict. It is a necessity. For strong resolute wills 
must encounter opposition, and make it too, just 
as the impetuous locomotive meets more opposi- 
tion from the air than the slow-creeping dray or 
the tiny child's coach. Strong-willed, intellectual, 
gifted men and women are more fiercely fought 
for than inferior people. They are the prizes. 
Virtue and vice contend for such precious posses- 
sions. " The Lord hath need " of such ; and the 
devil aims to make them his splendid spoil. 
Every man's life-march has its conflicts ; the more 
conspicuous and influential the life, the more 
memorable spots are its battlefields. 

The conflict of life is threefold. That is, sin 
presents itself in three modes ; every soul has 
three spiritual enemies to meet : The world, the 
flesh, the devil. By the " world " we mean that 



PIVOT BATTLES IN LIFE 47 

whole system of self-seeking, pride, and covetous- 
ness that is so congenial to the human heart. 
The " flesh " typifies sensual appetites. And the 
devil is the author of doubt and unbelief, of soul- 
enmity to God. These are the " triple alliance " 
from the pit. Against one or all of these must 
every soul do battle on its way to heaven. Be- 
fore these powers of darkness so well trained and 
so well equipped, so deadly in assault, and so flush 
with arrogance, every one of you young men 
may well call out to your will and your con- 
science, as Wellington called out in the critical 
moment behind Hougomont : " Here are the 
enemy ! Up, guards, and at them !" 

I. In offering you now some practical sugges- 
tions for these moral warfares, let me remind you 
that your first conflicts will probably be with 
sensual temptations. It is not the fault but the 
trial of youth that its blood is warm, its impulses 
are ardent, and its physical appetites clamorous 
for gratification. So far as these appetites are 
natural you are not to blame for them. The sin 
does not lie in possessing them, but in indulging 
them. The appetite for strong drink when con- 
trolled is as harmless as a caged tiger. The dan- 
ger comes from uncaging the monster. While 
young men have sensual appetites, and while 



48 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

thousands of abandoned people are incessantly 
inflaming those appetites by the most enticing 
and fascinating lures, there must be a warfare be- 
tween the conscience and the passions. This is 
inevitable. My friend, you cannot walk our 
streets without running the gauntlet of ten thou- 
sand decoys to ruin. All these lighted, decorated, 
chandeliered, and tapestried saloons are so many 
fortresses of the enemy. Their danger to you 
lies in the temptible material in your own breast. 
You may fling as many burning brands as you 
choose into a snowbank ; there is no harm done. 
But one spark is enough to send a powder maga- 
zine into the air. Your peril is in direct proportion 
to the strength of your appetites and the weakness 
of your moral principle. A veiy weak tempta- 
tion will send a weak conscience to perdition. It 
requires more than a strong temptation to over- 
throw a strong-souled man of God. But no 
temptation is an overmatch for a soul steel clad in 
celestial armor and sentineled by God's protect- 
ing Spirit. 

What allurements could be stronger than those 
which Potiphar's wanton wife brought to bear 
upon the youthful Joseph ? For remember that 
he was just at an age when passion flames the 
fiercest and beauty is most intoxicating to the 



PIVOT BATTLES IN LIFE 49 

eye. Remember that he was an underling, and 
completely in the power of his profligate mistress. 
Remember, too, that the high road to wealth and 
luxury lay through that mistress's guilty favor ; 
while she could doom him to insult and imprison- 
ment if he thwarted her salacious lust. That was 
the decisive battle in Joseph's career. It was his 
pivot moment. Defeat then would have been 
swift destruction. But after he had once spurned 
the jeweled duchess of a court, it was easy to 
spurn the filthy drab from the kennel. It was 
easy to keep his integrity in a prison when he 
had already kept it in a palace. If you, my 
friend, would make your battles with appetite as 
successfully decisive as Joseph did, imitate his 
example. Give the subtle enemy no quarter. 
Set your faces like a flint. Do not yield an inch 
if you would not be drawn a league. There is 
but one sure way to escape the doom that lies in 
the bottom of the wine cup, and that is to let the 
cup alone. No matter who may proffer it — even 
the sister of your childhood, or her who is dearer 
than any sister can be. 

As soon touch strychnine as that intoxicating 

glass. There is also but one certain way to avoid 

the gambler's infamy and ruin — don't touch a 

card. Stick to this resolution and the battle is 

4 



5 o A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

won. Would you preserve yourself chaste (and 
God commands men to be pure as much as He 
does women or angels) ? Would you keep chaste 
in a city whose very air is tainted with pollution ? 
Shut your eyes and ears to every tempter. In 
five minutes passion may kindle far enough to 
consume the good resolutions of a lifetime ; and 
when passion gets under way it is like the Rus- 
sian's burning of Moscow, where a thousand 
places are lighted at once. The question whether 
you shall be a sot or a sober man ? whether you 
shall be a companion of honest men or of game- 
sters ? whether you shall be clean-hearted or pos- 
sess an imagination that shall be but a hideous 
brothel ? is often decided in a moment. Oh, 
what a moral battlefield is this great city, where 
on each successive night is waged a conflict more 
momentous than ever roared on the streets of 
Montebello or raged about the heights of Sol- 
ferino ! When the moonlight flings its silver 
spell over quiet streets, and leafy parks, and glit- 
tering spires ; when the cheek of innocence 
presses its pillow, and the weary are at rest, the 
eye of God beholds in ten thousand hearts the 
most terrible combats between conscience and the 
tempter, between the legions of lust and the little 
Spartan band of virtue, temperance, and purity. 



PIVOT BATTLES IN LIFE 51 

What struggles does that all-seeing eye look 
down upon ! What victories ! What defeats and 
incipient damnations ! Where no father is by to 
give aid, how many a son is struck down ! 
Where no dear mother's voice can be heard in 
warning or in entreaty, how many a darling child 
of affection is stabbed through the soul by 
Satan's midnight assassins ! Said we not rightly 
that these are decisive conflicts ? For in the 
great day of judgment it will often appear that a 
single hour on earth did determine the destiny of 
the man for heaven or hell to all eternity. 

II. But there are other battles beside those 
with sensuality. The " world " is as dangerous 
an enemy as the flesh. By the " world " we 
mean the spirit of the world, the selfishness that 
cares not for God, the covetousness that worships 
mammon, the ambition that sacrifices every one 
and everything on its own selfish altar, the god- 
lessness that knows no Bible but a ledger, no 
heaven but a splendid mansion or a high office, 
no law but policy, and fears no hell but poverty 
or political defeat. I need not tell you that this 
spirit is most destructive to religion and most 
offensive to God. You know all that. No man 
is so selfish as not to hate selfishness. The miser 
pities the covetousness of other men. The world- 



52 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

ling sees how the world is ruining its devotees, 
just as every drunkard sees that his comrades are 
in danger of a drunkard's grave. There is no 
spirit more absorbing, more insinuating, more de- 
ceptive, more soul hardening than this very spirit 
of worldliness in its manifold developments. 
You must conquer it or it will enslave you. 

Whenever this subtle monopolizing spirit comes 
into antagonism with your conscience then you 
are put to the test to prove " what manner of 
man ye are of." In business, in public life, in 
social life, in your innermost religious life, will 
arise these decisive conflicts, often the most de- 
cisive when you least expect it. At an unlooked 
for moment you may be called to determine some 
question on the issue of which depends your 
peace of mind, your spiritual health, your Chris- 
tian character. You will pass through ordeals 
which will test exactly how much you are willing 
to do and how much you are glad to suffer for 
Jesus' sake. Duty will call you one way — a 
thorny way. Self-interest will beckon you into 
the opposite path — carpeted with velvet. That is 
a decisive moment for you. A simple "yes" or 
an emphatic " no " may cost you a fortune, may 
cost you a troop of friends, may cost you political 
promotion, may cost you your character, may cost 



PIVOT BATTLES IN LIFE 53 

you your soul. How many a public man has had 
his whole career decided by his course in some 
trying emergency or on some one great question 
of right ! He is led up into the mount of tempta- 
tion where some gigantic iniquity bids him bow 
down and worship it, and promises in return " all 
the world and the glory thereof." From that 
mount of trial he comes down a hero or a fool. 
The die is cast. If he has honored justice and 
truth, then justice and truth will honor him; if 
not, his bones will be left bleaching on the road 
to a promotion he can never reach. 

That was a hard struggle for Nathaniel Ripley 
Cobb, of Boston, when he decided to accumulate 
no more than fifty thousand dollars during his 
life, and to give all the surplus to the treasury of 
the Lord. But after the noble resolution was 
once taken, selfishness was a conquered lust in 
that man's breast forever. He had come off more 
than conqueror. How many a minister of Christ 
has been charged upon and overcome by this ac- 
cursed spirit of "worldly wisdom " ! He was put 
to the decisive test, not in Nero's judgment-hall 
or before Agrippa's tribunal ; not before a Popish 
inquisitor or in sight of Smithfield's fires of mar- 
tyrdom. But in his quiet study, when some timid 
friend counseled a treacherous silence in his pulpit 



54 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

on some vital question of right, his " yes " or his 
"no" has either called from his Master the pre- 
cious benediction, " Well done, thou good and 
faithful servant," or else the fearful anathema, " Ye 
were ashamed of Me and of My truth, and of thee 
will I be ashamed before My Father and His holy 
angels !" We all have our moral Marengos and 
our Waterloos, where we win or lose the crown 
of Christian character. When these decisive con- 
flicts come on between your conscience on the 
one hand, and some selfish scheme or satanic 
iniquity on the other, then try to remember a 
few simple rules of moral war : — 

1. Never change your position in sight of an 
enemy. This was a fatal policy to the allies at 
Austerlitz. It has cost many a disgraceful defeat 
in spiritual warfare. 

2. Never place on guard a doubtful or a ques- 
tionable principle. Your sentinel will be sure 
to betray you. 

3. Never abandon the high ground of right for 
the lowlands of expediency. Before you are 
aware you will be swamped in the bottomless 
morass of ruin. 

4. Get your moral armor from God's word, and 
" put on the whole armor." An exposed spot in 
character may admit the fatal weapon of the foe. 



PIVOT BATTLES IN LIFE 55 

Ahab was wounded through the joints of his 
harness. Do not mind blows in the face. Heroes 
are wounded in the face, cowards in the back. 

5. But whether wounded by foes or deserted 
by friends, never surrender. It is said that not 
one of the old Imperial Guard survived the wreck 
of Waterloo. Toward the sunset of that long 
bloody day, when the surviving remnant of the 
guards was summoned to lay down their arms, 
the scarred veterans of fifty victorious fights cried 
out : " The old guards can die, but they never 
learned to surrender !" The glorious Captain of 
our salvation could die for us, but He could not 
desert us. Blessed is he who is found faithful. 
He shall wear the crown of amaranth in the 
paradise of God. 

III. But we are driven on to our third and last 
head — the conflict between faith and unbelief. 
This is the most momentous of all the struggles 
in which your souls can be involved — faith, 
evangelic faith on the one side and unbelief on 
the other. By unbelief I mean something besides 
ordinary skepticism. You are not skeptics. Not 
many young men are infidels, especially if their 
infancy has nestled against the heart-throb of a 
pious mother, or if their childhood has been led 
up through a Sabbath school. By "unbelief" I 



56 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

refer to the heart's rejection of Jesus Christ. 
Here lies the real battle after all. The simple 
issue is, Shall Christ have possession of the soul 
or not ? That is the conflict. Faith is believing 
in Christ and following after Christ. And he that 
believeth on the Lord Jesus shall be saved. He 
that believeth not shall be condemned. The ulti- 
mate conflict with every one of you will be, Shall 
Christ or Satan rule my heart ? 

My friend, you may have gained decisive vic- 
tories already over sensuality, over selfishness, 
and over the truckling cowardice of " worldly 
wisdom." But the great encounter that decides 
the life-campaign is between Christ and Christ's 
enemy. What other conflict than this was in the 
mind of Paul when he wrote that most plaintive 
outcry in the seventh chapter to the Romans ? 
Of what other battle did he sing the exultant 
pean in those jubilant words : " I have fought a 
good fight, ... I have kept the faith : henceforth 
there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give 
me at that day"? And bringing it right home to 
yourself, I ask you, what was that struggle in 
your own bosom when you trembled under God's 
word, when your own nature fortified itself against 
the blessed assaults of redeeming love, when your 



PIVOT BATTLES IN LIFE 57 

aroused conscience cried out, " Lord ! what must 
I do to be saved ?" Of all life's conflicts this, this 
is the decisive one. It decides the destiny of the 
deathless soul forever. And it can be decided 
aright only by giving up your soul to Jesus 
Christ. 

Do that at once I beseech you. The Spirit of 
God may now be striving with you. The Saviour 
of sinners, with pierced hand, is holding open to 
you the door of hope. It is a critical moment 
with you, 

" For there is a time we know not when, 
A point we know not where, 
That marks the destiny of men 
To glory or despair." 

Make this critical hour the hour of your soul's 
salvation. And when, by the grace of God, you 
have done that, you may say of the day of your 
conversion, as was said of Joshua's victory at 
Gibeon, " There was no day like that before it or 
after it, that the Lord hearkened unto the voice 
of a man." Thanks be unto Him who giveth us 
the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 



IV 
THE LITTLE COAT 



IV 

THE LITTLE COAT 

" His mother made him a little coat, and brought it to him 
from year to year." — I. Sam. ii. 19. 

You may smile at this text. Well, it is but a 
little text, about a little garment that turned to 
dust many hundred years ago. We cannot al- 
ways be discussing the great central and com- 
manding themes, such as the Divine attributes, 
redemption, regeneration, immortality, and the 
judgment to come. Life is largely made up of 
small things, and the small things are often very 
great in their influence upon character and des- 
tiny. This little text about a lad's " wee " coat 
has a connection with some of the most vital 
concerns of life, and is suggestive of many im- 
portant truths — especially for parents. 

In a parent's eye there is no greater personage 

in this world than a little child. As the least of 

the planets floats nearest to the sun, so the baby 

of the household gets the central place in the 

home and the warm chimney corner in the heart. 

61 



62 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

What a marvel of beauty — nothing short of a 
miracle — is a first-born child ! With what a glow 
of honest pride has many a young mother made 
for her infant treasure the tiny garment in which 
it was to be presented to the Lord, in the beauti- 
ful rite of baptism ! And in many a home there 
is carefully packed away — as above all price — the 
little white dress in which was baptized the dar- 
ling one whom Jesus took home long ago. 

There is a sweet touch of nature in the passage 
which I have chosen to-day. Away back in 
those distant lands and ages there was a young 
wife, whom the Lord remembered and to whom 
He gave a son. How overflowing was her joy ! 
(For Hannah was not like some heartless women 
of our day who regard children as a burden and a 
nuisance, and would rather risk child-murder 
than become mothers.) The grateful soul of 
Hannah broke forth in thanksgiving : " For this 
child I prayed ; and the Lord hath given me my 
petition which I asked of Him. Therefore also I 
have lent him to the Lord ; as long as he liveth 
he shall be lent to the Lord." 

As soon as the infant Samuel was weaned, 
Hannah goes up to Shiloh, the sacred city, to 
perform the vow which she had promised in the 
days of her childless affliction. With a happy 



THE LITTLE COAT 63 

heart she makes her pilgrimage to the shrine of 
Jehovah — not only presenting her beloved boy to 
the Lord but also offering several costly sacrifices. 
God had remembered her sorrow and had made 
her weep for joy. He had given her a son, and 
she consecrates him to the service of the temple. 
He could not have been more than three or four 
years old when Hannah placed him under the 
care of Eli the high priest, and he found his home 
thenceforward in the dwelling place of the Most 
High. 

Moreover, his mother made him a little coat 
(or tunic), and brought it to him from year to 
year when she came up with Elkanah to offer 
their annual sacrifice. What sort of a garment 
could the little tunic have been ? Well, I can- 
not satisfy your curiosity ; but we may well be- 
lieve that so sensible a mother as Hannah did 
not degrade her child into a doll, to be bedecked 
with foolish fineries. It must have been a modest 
and becoming garment which the godly mother 
made each year for the appareling of her child. 
I wish that I could say as much of the apparel 
which -thousands of Christian parents now load 
upon the forms of their children ; as if God did 
not make a child beautiful enough without the 
aid of elaborate fineries and expensive uphol- 



64 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

sterings. I tell you that this overdressing of 
the body strikes through into the mind and heart 
— poisoning the mind with affectation and with 
most unchildlike greed of admiration and vain- 
glory. How can a check ever be put upon the 
crop of fops and fashion-worshipers if children 
are trained into fopperies and fooleries from 
the nursery? How can a child be instructed 
to frugality, humility, self-denial, or any sort of 
spiritual-mindedness while its free young graces 
are smothered under the artificial trappings of 
pride and extravagance ? I entreat you, Chris- 
tian parents, that if you lend your children to 
the Lord, not to disfigure the sacred loan by 
turning an immortal being into a doll. That wise 
Hebrew mother made for her son such a garment 
as became his station ; for Samuel was devoted to 
the service of God, and not to the " lust of the 
eye and the pride of life." 

Going now more deeply into the spiritual sug- 
gestions of our text, let me remind you that 
clothing has a figurative signification in the word 
of God. We are exhorted to be clothed with 
humility, and to keep our garments unspotted 
from the world. Christianity is likened to a 
vesture ; and believers are commanded to " put 
on Christ," so that they need not be found naked 



THE LITTLE COAT 65 

or disfigured with the " filthy rags " of self-right- 
eousness. As our dress is the part of us most 
visible to everybody, so should our Christ-like- 
ness be visible at first sight to all whom we meet. 
This illustration of character by clothing extends 
even into the heavenly world ; for we are told 
that " whosoever overcometh shall be clothed in 
white raiment," and the saints shall be attired in 
robes- that have been washed to spotless purity 
in the blood of the atoning Lamb of God. 

Nor is it a mere pulpit pun that the very word 
" habit " is employed to signify both the dress of 
the body and the moral tendency and disposition 
of the mind. We parents clothe our children in 
both senses of the word. We provide the rai- 
ment for their bodies, and, in no small degree, 
we provide the habits of their thought and con- 
duct. We make for them coats that will last — 
which no moth can eat nor time deface — coats 
which they may never outgrow as long as life 
endures. 

Mothers, the Creator puts into your hands 
an unclothed spirit as well as an unclothed 
body. You make a garment for the one ; 
and. in many a home there is hardly a rest 
for your busy needles through all the year. 
But shall the mind — the immortal spirit — be left 
5 



66 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

naked, or be compelled to pick up at random its 
habits of thinking and acting ? This were impos- 
sible. Our children will put on our ways and our 
habits in spite of us. Our character streams into 
our children, entering through their eyes and 
ears and every faculty of observation. What 
they see us do, they will do ; what they hear 
from us lodges in their memory, and, like seed 
dropped from a parent stock, will come up in 
their conduct, for good or evil. We are forming 
their habits ; and, in the primary school of home, 
we are educating them every hour. Upon their 
plastic, susceptible minds we are printing con- 
stantly the impressions which come out in char- 
acter. No photographic plate is so sensitive to 
the images which lodge upon it as are the recep- 
tive minds of our children to whatever they are 
seeing or hearing. The sagacious Dr. Bushnell 
has happily said that " every sentiment which 
looks into the little eyes looks back out of the 
eyes, and plays in miniature on the countenance. 
The tear that steals down a mother's cheek 
gathers the little face into a responsive sadness. 
A fright in the mother's face will frighten the 
child. Our irritations irritate them ; our dissimu- 
lations make them tricky and deceitful." 

If a boy is handled harshly, is thumped or 



THE LITTLE COAT 67 

jerked into obedience, he will probably turn out a 
sulky, obstinate, and irritable creature — just what 
our impetuous impatience made him. If malicious 
gossip or scandal sour our talk at the table or 
fireside, our children's " teeth will be set on 
edge." Give your boy a dollar for the toyshop 
or the place of amusement, and only a dime for 
the Lord's contribution box, and you will teach 
him that self-indulgence is ten times more impor- 
tant than charity. If we live for the world, it is 
very likely that our children may die of the 
world, If we set our affections on things above, 
and seek first the kingdom of God for ourselves 
and for them, we may reasonably hope to win 
them into the upward pathway we are treading. 
And thus, my fellow-parents, are we making 
" little coats " for the younger children, and the 
larger coats for the older ones, all the while. 
When they go away from home they will wear 
the habits which we put upon them. We really 
send ourselves to the boarding school or the 
college in the bearing and breeding which our 
sons and daughters carry thither. Our older 
children are wearing now the coats of character 
which we cut out for them ten or twenty years 
ago. How do we like their dress ? Is it after 
the good Bible pattern ? Mr. A. used to think it 



68 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

a genteel and hospitable practice to set the de- 
canter on his table ; and his sons learned to love 
the wine too well. They have practiced on these 
home lessons until their " redness of eyes " and 
thickness of tongue prove their too great famili- 
arity with the bottle. How does he like the coat 
they wear ? 

Brother B. thought that, after all, the theater 
was not so perilous a place as his pastor or other 
Puritanic people had pictured it. So instead of 
providing unexceptionable recreations for his chil- 
dren he gave them carte blanche for the playhouse, 
with all its lascivious attractions and salacious se- 
ductions. Some of them have gone too often for 
their purity of heart or peace of conscience. Can 
he now pull off the " habit " which he permitted 
or encouraged them to put on ? Mrs. C. insisted 
that the assembly room was the best place to 
acquire gracefulness of carriage and elegance of 
deportment. Her daughters learned everything 
that the ballroom teaches — even to that style 
of dance that is " the last sigh of expiring mod- 
esty." As she looks now upon their gay apparel 
of fashion and frivolity, so different from the 
" ornament of a meek and quiet spirit," her 
motherly eyes are sometimes moistened at the 
sight. 



THE LITTLE COAT 69 

Here is a father who spends his Sabbath over 
his cigar, his Sunday morning newspaper, and his 
business letters. His sons put on the coat and 
wear it to their soul's peril ; they are not likely 
to lay it aside unless the grace of God shall open 
their eyes to the solemn fact that to lose the 
Sabbath is to lose the soul. In one family the 
prevailing topic is " money — money " ; in another 
dress" and parade; in another sporting; in another 
music and fine art ; in another the tone of daily 
conversation is toward the best things worth 
living for ; and the pattern which the parents set 
the children copy. How will all these " habits " 
of thought and conduct look when they are sub- 
jected to the test of experience and the searching 
light of the day of judgment ? Ah, these mind- 
garments, which beautify and adorn, or else dis- 
figure and deprave, are very apt to last for a life- 
time ; they will be worn by our offspring long 
after many of us have turned to dust. They will 
be garments of light and loveliness, or else of 
shame and sorrow. 

Do not imagine, therefore, that the " little 
coat" is worthy of only slight attention. The 
sum of life is made up of little things. They 
determine character and often decide destiny. 
As the peasant's coarse frock and the monarch's 



70 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

robe are both made up of many small threads 
woven together, so is the garment of character 
woven out of the innumerable thoughts and 
words and deeds of each person's daily existence. 
It is in the little things that Bible piety makes 
itself most winsome ; and the mischief wrought 
by inconsistent Christians arises from the indul- 
gence of petty sins that are as destructive as 
moths upon the garment. Dr. M c Laren pithily 
says that " white ants pick a carcass clean sooner 
than a lion will." I fear that you and I are often 
great sinners in little things. The little mean- 
nesses of word and look, the irritations of tem- 
per, the small duplicities of speech, the " white 
lies " that are only whitewashed, the small af- 
fronts and petty spites, the thoughtless neglect 
of other people's welfare, and the paltry ex- 
cuses by which we strive to excuse ourselves 
from painful duty — all these make up an awful 
aggregate of sin. A snowflake is a tiny thing, 
that might melt in an infant's hand. But enough 
of these may be heaped up by a blizzard on a 
railway track to stall the most powerful engine 
and its train. So is it the aggregate amount 
of inconsistent acts and neglects of duty that 
impair the influence of the individual Christian ; 
they may accumulate into snow banks that block 



THE LITTLE COAT 71 

up revivals and bring a whole church to a stand- 
still. No sin is a trifle ; no sin can be safely 
allowed to get headway. " Let that worm alone 
and it will kill your tree," was said once to a 
gardener in a nobleman's park. Sure enough ; 
the gardener neglected the little borer, and the 
next year's yellow leaves showed the slow assas- 
sination of the tree. 

On the other hand, it is the sum total of daily 
good deeds that make up the " beauty of holi- 
ness." The richest crops of grace spring from 
tiny seeds — especially when they have been 
watered by prayer. 

Let no one despise the day of small things. 
The noblest Christian lives often have their origin 
in some faithful word spoken in love, or in the 
reading of a tract, or in some small occurrence, 
or in a single resolution to break with some be- 
setting sin. One sentence seems to have brought 
the ardent Peter and the beloved John to their 
decision of discipleship. One sentence converted 
the jailer of Philippi. The outcome of those few 
words has been felt in the spiritual history of 
thousands of others since that day. Paul little 
knew how many souls, in all time, he was ad- 
dressing when he said to the frightened jailer, 
" Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt 



72 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

be saved." In fact, nobody ever knows how 
much good he is doing when he does just one 
good thing. 

A word of praise from his mother made Ben- 
jamin West a painter and president of the Royal 
Academy. A kind sentence or two of commen- 
dation, bestowed in a short talk in a prayer 
meeting, led me to enter the sacred ministry. 
From that incident I learned never to underrate 
the influence of a few words spoken at a critical 
moment. 

A godly wife told her husband that she " trem- 
bled for him " ; and that single sentence spoken in 
love sent him trembling to the cross. Dr. Pay- 
son, of Portland, once asked a group of young 
men to let him read to them a hymn ; and when 
it was ended they were all in tears. The Divine 
Spirit was in that tender voice. Harlan Page, 
reared like his Master to the humble trade of a 
carpenter, became a marvel ously successful winner 
of souls to Christ by uttering a few " words in 
season " with an emphasis of love that penetrated 
to the core. 

That noble Boanerges of the western New 
York pulpit, Dr. Wisner, of Ithaca, said that he 
stopped, on a hot summer day, at a farmhouse 
for a glass of water. The farmer's daughter 



THE LITTLE COAT 73 

handed him the refreshing draught, and he re- 
paid her by a kind, tender word about Jesus as 
the water of life. Several years afterwards a 
middle-aged woman recognized him on the deck 
of a steamboat, and thanked him for the few 
plain, faithful words which led her to Christ. It 
is a sin and a shame that we Christians let slip 
so many opportunities to drop a word of truth 
through an open ear into an open soul. Grant 
that many a truth thus dropped has not sprouted ; 
neither has every sermon preached been the 
means of converting a soul. But the awakening 
power of a discourse has often lain in a single 
point pressed home. It is the tip of the arrow 
that penetrates the "joints of the harness." 

The great lesson in the saving of souls is never 
to " despise the day of small things," never to 
lose an opportunity, and never to underrate the 
power of a single truth spoken in love. Revivals 
in a church commonly start in one or two hearts. 
The first revival in the little church in which 
my own early ministry was spent began in the 
heart of a little girl. Her few words awakened 
one woman, and that woman came at once to me, 
and proposed special meetings ; they were worth 
more to me than any year in a theological semi- 
nary. 



74 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

I might multiply these illustrations of the 
greatness of the littles ; for nothing is small that 
has God's Spirit in it and working through it. 
In conclusion, I would impress once more upon 
the hearts of all parents the prodigious impor- 
tance of all those numberless words and deeds 
by which they weave those garments of character 
that shall be worn long after they are in their 
silent sepulchers. No office is comparable to 
that of parentage ; no trust is so sacred as that 
of an immortal spirit in the plastic period of 
childhood. When the Creator lays a newborn 
babe in the arms of its parents, He says to them, 
" Take this child and nurse it for Me and I will 
give thee thy wages." The answer of gratitude 
and faith ought to be : O God, Thou hast put 
Thy noblest work into our hands. We accept the 
precious trust. We will shelter this young life 
under Thy mercy seat. We will nurse this soul 
in its infancy with the sincere milk of truth, that 
in after years it may bear strong meat, for strong 
service of God and righteousness. Help us to 
order our own lives in harmony with Thee, so 
that this young life may reflect Thine image in 
reflecting ours ! 

To such conscientious fidelity God offers the 
only wages that can satisfy the claims of love. 



THE LITTLE COAT 75 

He pays the heart's claim in the heart's own coin. 
Faithful, painstaking, prayerful Hannah found her 
rich reward in the sight of Samuel's after-career 
as Israel's upright judge. Timothy's " little coat " 
outlasted his mother Eunice. The mother of the 
Wesleys was repaid for all her patient, loving 
discipline when her sons reared the world-wide 
tabernacle for Methodism. God never breaks 
His covenant with those who fulfill their cove- 
nants to Him. 

Fathers, mothers, we are weaving the habits of 
our children every hour! We do it, as clothes 
are fashioned, stitch by stitch ; and most of all 
by the unconscious influence of example. The 
estate which we can bequeath to them may be 
small. We may not all be able to afford them 
the costly education of great schools or universi- 
ties. But day by day we can be patiently weav- 
ing for them that garment of godliness that, by 
Divine grace, shall grow brighter and fairer until 
they shall walk in shining apparel before the 
throne of God. 



V 
THE JOURNEY OF A DAY 



V 

THE JOURNEY OF A DAY 

"I pray Thee, send me good speed this day." — Genesis 
xxiv. 12. 

In those early patriarchal times God and His 
people seemed to live very near together and to 
hold very close personal intercourse. Their faith 
was as simple as their style of living. Abraham 
often conversed with God as one of our children 
converses with father or mother, on terms of filial 
and yet familiar affection. Eliezer, the steward 
of Abraham, addresses Jehovah in the same 
direct, though reverent manner. 

The story from which our text is taken gives 
us a charming picture of the pastoral life of the 
Orient in those early times. Abraham sends 
Eliezer, the " eldest servant of his house," to 
Mesopotamia on a search for a wife for his son 
Isaac. Eliezer sets off with his caravan of 
camels, and soon reaches the city of Nahor, near 
which resides Bethuel, who was a kinsman of 
Abraham. The caravan halts beside a well in 

79 



80 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

the vicinity of the town. With straightforward 
directness Eliezer offers up this prayer : " O Lord 
God of my master Abraham, I pray Thee, send 
me good speed this day, and show kindness unto 
my master Abraham. Behold, I stand here by the 
well of water ; and the daughters of the men of 
the city come out to draw water. And let it 
come to pass, that the damsel to whom I shall say, 
Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may 
drink ; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give 
thy camels drink also : let the same be she that 
Thou hast appointed for Thy servant Isaac ; and 
thereby shall I know that Thou hast showed 
kindness unto my master." The speedy appear- 
ance of the beautiful Rebekah, with her pitcher 
upon her shoulder, attested the answer which 
Eliezer sought for his petition. 

It is not my custom to use passages of Holy 
Writ as mottoes for my discourses ; but I shall 
do so on this occasion. My theme is The Journey 
of a Day, and how, by God's blessing, to make 
good speed upward and heavenward through 
every hour. Life is frequently presented as a 
journey or a pilgrimage ; and John Bunyan was 
only following the line of scriptural suggestion 
when he conceived the plan of his immortal alle- 
gory. The actual journey of human life is sub- 



THE JOURNEY OF A DAY 81 

divided into several stages. Of these a day is 
the most visible and definite, for it is measured 
by the motion of our globe on its axis. A 
person of the average age (thirty years) sees 
about eleven thousand days; a veteran of four 
score sees about thirty thousand. In ordinary 
phrase we apply the word " day " to those hours 
of the twenty-four which are marked by sunlight. 
The period we call " night " is the bivouac after 
the march ; and the hours of sleep are the blank 
leaves in the diary of life. 

After a few hours of unconscious slumber the 
rosy finger of the morning touches us as the Divine 
Restorer touched the motionless form of Jairus' 
daughter, and saith to us, Arise ! In an instant 
the wheels of conscious activity are set in motion, 
and we leap up from that temporary tomb, our 
bed. Was yesterday a sick day ? Sleep, like a 
good doctor, may have made us well. Was yes- 
terday a sad day ? Sleep has kindly soothed the 
agitated nerves. Was it (like too many of its 
predecessors) a lost day ? Then our merciful 
Father puts us on a new probation, and gives us 
a chance to save this newborn day for Him and 
for His holy purposes of our existence. 

Do we lose the morning either by oversleep 
or indolence or aimlessness ? Then we com- 
6 



82 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

monly lose the day. One hour of the morning 
is worth two or three at the sunsetting. The 
best hours for study, for invention, or for labor 
are the first hours after mind and body have their 
resurrection from the couch of slumber. Napo- 
leon, who made time a great factor in all his suc- 
cesses, seized the early dawn. The master of 
modern fiction wrote nearly all his " Waverley " 
romances while his guests were sleeping. The 
numerous commentaries of good Albert Barnes 
are monuments to early rising ; they attest how 
much a man may accomplish who gets at his 
work by five o'clock in the morning. To the 
student, the artist, the merchant, the manual 
laborer, the most useful hours are reached before 
the sun climbs to the meridian. I am well aware 
that a vast deal of traditional nonsense has come 
down to us about the " midnight lamp." But 
those who use the midnight lamp, for either 
mental toil or sensual dissipations, are very apt 
to burn their own lamp of life out the soonest. 
Make it a rule, then, that he who would begin 
the day aright must seize and save its earliest 
hours. How often do we see some poor dilatory 
fellow rushing in blundering haste through the 
whole day in vain pursuit after the time he lost in 
the morning ! 



THE JOURNEY OF A DAY 83 

Every day should be commenced with God 
and upon the knees. " In the morning will I 
direct my prayer unto Thee, and will look up," 
said the man after God's own heart. He begins 
the day unwisely who leaves his chamber without 
a secret conference with his heavenly Friend. 
The true Christian goes to his closet both for his 
panoply and his " rations " for the day's march 
and . its inevitable conflicts. As the Oriental 
traveler sets out for the sultry journey by loading 
up his camel under the palm tree's shade, and by 
filling his flagons from the cool fountain that 
sparkles at its roots, so doth God's wayfarer draw 
his fresh supplies from the unexhausted spring. 
Morning is the golden time for devotion. The 
mercies of the night provoke to thankfulness. 
The buoyant heart, that is in love with God, 
makes its earliest flight — like the lark — toward 
the gates of heaven. Gratitude, faith, dependent 
trust, all prompt to early interviews with Him, 
who, never slumbering Himself, awaits on His 
throne for our morning orisons. We all re- 
member Bunyan's beautiful description of his 
Pilgrim's lodging over night in the " Chamber of 
Peace " which looked toward the sunrising, and 
at daybreak he " awoke and sang." If stony 
Egyptian " Memnon " made music when the first 



84 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

rays kindled on his flinty brow, a devout heart 
should not be mute when God causes the out- 
goings of his mornings to rejoice. 

No pressure of business, or household duties 
should crowd out prayer. An eminent Chris- 
tian merchant told me that it was his rule to 
secure a good quiet half-hour in his chamber on 
his knees and over his Bible before he met his 
family; and then he went into his business — as 
Moses came down from the mount — with his 
face shining. Doctor Arnold, of Rugby, had a 
favorite morning hymn, which opens with these 
stirring lines : — 

" Come, my soul, thou must be waking ; 
Now is breaking 

O'er the earth another day. 
Come to Him who made this splendor ; 
See thou render 

All thy feeble powers can pay." 

Closet devotions are the fit precursor to house- 
hold worship. Family religion underlies the 
commonweath and the church. No Christian 
government, no healthy public conscience, no 
Bible philanthropies, no wholesome church life 
can exist without being rooted beneath the 
hearthstone and the family altar. The glory and 
defense of dear old Scotland are found in those 



THE JOURNEY OF A DAY 85 

scenes of ingle-side worship which Burns has so 
finely pictured : — 

"From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, 
That makes her loved at home, revered abroad." 

No prelude to the day is so fitting, so impress- 
ive, and so potent in its influence as the union 
of household hearts round the throne of grace. 
Family worship is a strong seam well stitched on 
the border of the day, to keep it from raveling 
out into indolence and irreligion. Wise is that 
Christian parent who hems every morning with 
the word of God and fervent prayer. 

When the early devotions of the day are over, 
then let us shoulder up its load cheerfully. The 
happiness and the serenity of the whole day de- 
pend very much upon a cheerful start. The man 
who leaves his home with a scowl on his brow, 
with a snap at his children, and a tart speech to 
his wife, is not likely to be a very pleasant com- 
panion for anyone, or to return home at night 
less acid than a vinegar cruet. We never know 
what the day may bring forth, or when we shall 
leave our threshold for the last time, or hear the 
last " good morning." Let us, therefore, set out 
on the day's journey under the wing of God's 
loving care, and committing our way unto Him. 



86 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

The steps of a good man are ordered by the 
Lord. Eliezer described his happy and success- 
ful day's journey by saying at its close, " I being 
in the way, the Lord led me to the house of my 
master's brethren." When you and I are in the 
path of duty, and have sought the Divine direc- 
tion, we may feel sure that the Lord always will 
lead us likewise. 

In order to make " good speed " in your day's 
journey, do not go overloaded. I do not refer so 
much to your undertaking too many things as to 
your carrying too many cares. Honest work is 
strengthening; but worry frets and fevers us. 
The temptation to worry should be resisted as 
a temptation of the devil ; to yield to it is a sin 
against our own peace, and a reproach upon 
our Christian character. The journey made by 
any pedestrian is simply a succession of steps. 
In accomplishing your day's work you have 
simply to take one step at a time. To take that 
step wisely is all that you need to think about. 
If I am climbing a mountain, to look down may 
make me dizzy ; to look too far up may make me 
tired and discouraged. Take no anxious thought 
for the morrow. Sufficient for the day — yes, and 
for each hour in the day — is the toil or the trial 
thereof. There is not a child of God in this 



THE JOURNEY OF A DAY 87 

world who is strong enough to stand the strain 
of to-day's duties and all the load of to-morrow's 
anxieties piled upon the top of them. Paul him- 
self would have broken down if he had attempted 
the experiment. We have a perfect right to ask 
our heavenly Father for strength equal to the 
day ; but we have no right to ask Him for one 
extra ounce of strength for anything beyond it. 
When the morrow comes, grace will come with 
it sufficient for its tasks or for its troubles. 

" Let me be strong in word and deed 
Just for to-day; 
Lord ! for to-morrow and its need 
I must not pray." 

The journey of each day — yes, and of every 
day until we reach the Father's house — is a walk 
of faith. We are often perplexed, and in our 
short-sighted ignorance we cry out : " Lord, how 
can we know the way?" The answer comes 
back to us : "I will lead the blind in paths that 
they have not known ; I will make the darkness 
light before them." When Eliezer humbly asked 
God to guide him, he made " good speed " in- 
deed ; he was directed to the very place and to 
the very person that he was in quest of. His 
master Abraham before him had made the jour- 



88 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

ney from the land of the Chaldees to the land of 
Canaan entirely by faith ; for he " went out, not 
knowing whither he went." He had no maps 
and no itinerary; yet one thing he was sure of: 
he knew that God was his guide, and that he was 
heaven-bound. Every Christian should be a close 
and attentive observer of providential leadings. 
A conflict often arises between choosing our own 
way — that "jumps with our own selfish inclina- 
tion " — or walking in God's way. Lot chose his 
own way, and it led him into Sodom. When he 
obeyed God's directions they led him in safety to 
Zoar. Jonah chose his own way, and it sent him 
overboard into the raging sea; then he took 
God's way, and it brought him to Nineveh on a 
mission of mercy. 

Whatever perplexities may arise as to the 
meanings of the Divine providences, or however 
fallible may be our own judgments, yet of one 
thing we may feel perfectly sure : God has given 
us a guidebook for every day's journey that is 
both divinely inspired and perfectly infallible. 
" This is the Book," as Coleridge said of it, " that 
always finds us." There is not a difficult ques- 
tion in ethics on which this heaven-lighted lamp 
does not shed a clear light, and for every step in 
life it has a precept and a principle. The Bible is 



THE JOURNEY OF A DAY 89 

emphatically a book for everyday use ; and the 
healthy Christian runs his Christianity through 
all the routine of his everyday experience. 
Some people keep their religion, as they do their 
umbrellas, for stormy weather ; they may think it 
a convenient thing to have when their physician 
pronounces a fatal verdict, or when death is at the 
door. Others reserve their piety for the Sabbath 
and the sanctuary, and on Monday fold it up and 
lay it away with their Sunday clothes. But every 
day of the week ought to be a " Lord's day," and 
carry us twenty-four hours nearer heaven. A 
healthy religion cannot be maintained simply by 
Sundays, and psalms, and sacraments ; it must 
be fed both from the " upper springs " and the 
" nether springs." Brethren, let us see to it that 
the higher regions of our lives toward God are 
not more plentifully watered than those lower 
regions which embrace our conduct and our con- 
nection with our fellow-creatures. The lowly 
valleys in which we meet our families, our friends, 
and our business associates ought to be just as 
verdant and well-watered as those Sabbath eleva- 
tions on which we " see no man save Jesus only." 
In the journey of each day we cannot predict 
what lies before us. We know not what the day 
may bring forth — whether of joy or sorrow. This 



90 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

is well ; for our joys are heightened when they 
come as glad surprises, and to forecast our 
sorrows would only increase our sufferings with- 
out increasing our strength to bear them. Temp- 
tations, however, owe much of their peril and of 
their power to the fact that they commonly 
spring upon us unawares. Satan is no more 
likely to advertise the time and method of his 
assaults in advance than a burglar is to send us 
word that he will be trying the bolts of our front 
doors at one o'clock to-morrow morning. " I 
say unto you all, Watch" is the command of our 
Master. You may remember how, during the 
Civil War, the Union forces, flushed with victory 
and a false sense of security, were taking their 
morning meal very leisurely at Cedar Creek. 
Suddenly the Confederates pounced upon them 
and scattered them into a rout — which was only 
checked by the timely arrival of Sheridan after 
his famous and romantic ride from Winchester. 
We are all liable to have our Cedar Creeks ; and 
the times in which we lay our armor off or relax 
our vigilance, and over-estimate our own spiritual 
strength, are the most disastrous in our life- 
record. " He that trusteth in his own heart is a 
fool : but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be de- 
livered." 



THE JOURNEY OF A DAY 91 

There is no journey of life but has its clouded 
days ; and there are some days in which our eyes 
are so blinded with tears that we find it hard to 
see our way or even read God's promises. Those 
days that have a bright sunrise followed by 
sudden thunderclaps and bursts of unlooked-for 
sorrows are the ones that test certain of our 
graces the most severely. Yet the law of spirit- 
ual" eyesight very closely resembles the law of 
physical optics. When we come suddenly out 
of the daylight into a room even moderately 
darkened we can discern nothing, but the pupil 
of our eye gradually enlarges until unseen ob- 
jects become visible. Even so the pupil of the 
eye of faith has the blessed faculty of enlarging 
in dark hours of bereavement, so that we dis- 
cover that our loving Father's hand is holding 
the cup of trial, and by and by the gloom be- 
comes luminous with glory. The fourteenth 
chapter of John never falls with such music 
upon our ears as when we catch its sweet strains 
amid the pauses of some terrific storm. " Let 
not your heart be troubled : ye believe in God, 
believe also in Me." " I will not leave you com- 
fortless." 

What are the happiest hours we spend in every 
day? I will venture to say that they are those 



92 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

which see us busy in doing good to others and in 
serving our Master. A cup of cold water costs 
only the trouble to get it ; its refreshing draught 
may revive some fainting spirit. That is a bright 
hour in which we lift up some poor fellow- 
traveler and set him on his feet. A still brighter 
one is that in which we lead him to the Saviour. 
Harlan Page made it his rule never to talk to 
anybody for ten minutes without trying to do 
him or her some good. If all our hearts were 
more highly charged with the Divine electricity, 
we should flash out sparks of loving-kindness to 
everyone with whom we come in contact. 

I very much fear that most of you see but very 
few days that are really full of joy in large meas- 
ure, pressed down and running over ; and whose 
fault is it but your own ? One of the happiest 
Christians that I know is happy on a small in- 
come and in spite of some very sharp trials. 
The secret of happiness is not the size of one's 
purse, or the style of one's house, or the number 
of one's butterfly friends ; the fountain of peace 
and joy is in the heart. If you would only throw 
open your heart's windows to the sunshine of 
Christ's love, it would soon scatter the chilling 
mists, and even turn tears into rainbows. Some 
professed Christians pinch and starve themselves 



THE JOURNEY OF A DAY 93 

into walking skeletons, and then try to excuse 
themselves on the plea of ill-health or " constitu- 
tional " ailments. The medicines they need are 
from Christ's pharmacy. A large draught of 
Bible taken every morning, a throwing open of 
the heart's windows to the promises of the 
Master, a few words of honest prayer, a deed or 
two of kindness to the next person whom you 
meet, will do more to brighten your countenance 
and help your digestion than all the drugs of the 
doctors. If you want to get your aches and 
trials out of sight, hide them under your mercies. 
Bear in mind, my friends, that your happiness 
or your misery are very much of your own mak- 
ing. You cannot create spiritual sunshine any 
more than you can create the morning star ; but 
you can put your soul where Christ is shining. 
Begin every day with God. Keep a clean con- 
science and a good stock of Bible promises 
within reach. Keep a strong, robust faith that 
can draw honey out of a rock and oil out of the 
flinty rock. Never spend a day without trying to 
do somebody good ; and then, keeping step with 
your Master, march on toward home over any 
road, however rough, and against any head winds 
that blow. It will be all sunshine when we get 
to heaven, and " there is no night there !" 



94 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

As I close this discourse and look over this 
assembly I cannot but observe how a day is a 
type of human life. That little child nestling 
beside its mother is now in the rosy dawn of its 
existence. Yonder young men and maidens are 
still in the morning — under skies flushed with 
hope. These men of business and these mis- 
tresses of households are in the busy noontide. 
Many of you are far on in the afternoon ; and on 
some of our heads the gray hairs bespeak the 
approaching sundown. Be the journey long or 
short, may God give you " good speed " heaven- 
ward, and enable every one of you to do a round 
day's work for Him ! Marble and granite are 
perishable monuments, and their inscriptions may 
be seldom read. Carve your names on human 
hearts ; they alone are immortal ! Work while 
the day lasts ; for " the night cometh !" Let it 
come ! If Christ come with it, we can listen 
calmly for the sunset gun. 

" Just when Thou wilt, Oh, Master ! call, 
Or at the noon or evening-fall, 
Or in the dark or in the light, 
Just when Thou wilt ; it shall be right. 

Just when Thou wilt ; no choice for me, 
Life is a trust to use for Thee ; 
Death is the hushed and glorious tryst 
With Thee, my King, my Saviour-Christ!" 



VI 
JESUS ONLY 



VI 

JESUS ONLY 
" They saw no man, save Jesus only." — Matthew xvii. 8. 

There has been much discussion over the 
scene of our Lord's transfiguration ; but to my 
mind it seems probable that it occurred upon one 
of the southern spurs of Mount Hermon, north 
of Caesarea Philippi. The outlook from such a 
point would carry the eye from Lebanon, with its 
diadems of glittering ice, southward to the silvery 
mirror of Gennesareth. But it was not that vision 
of natural beauty that the three disciples looked 
at chiefly. They saw Jesus only. Two illustri- 
ous prophets, Moses and Elijah, had just made 
their miraculous appearance on the top of the 
mount. But neither of these mighty men ap- 
peared any longer to the disciples' view ; " they 
saw no man, save Jesus only" These two words 
are large enough to suggest many a sermon ; let 
us gather up some of their teachings to us to- 
day. 

7 97 



9 8 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

I. In these words we find a clew to the power 
of the apostolic preaching. That majestic figure 
on the mount became the central figure to the 
eye and the heart of the apostles. One Person 
occupied their thoughts ; one Person inspired all 
their most effective discourses. It was no such 
combination of philosopher and philanthropist 
as Renan has portrayed, or Theodore Parker 
preached; it was the omnipotent and ineffable 
Son of God. They saw in Him " God manifest 
in the flesh " ; they saw in Him an infinite Re- 
deemer, a Divine Model of Life, a constant In- 
tercessor, a never-failing Friend. When Peter 
delivered his first sermon at Pentecost, and when 
John described his sublime visions on the isle of 
Patmos, they directed all eyes to the Lamb of 
God, who taketh away the sin of the world. 
Paul gave utterance to the heart of the whole 
apostolic brotherhood when he said, " I deter- 
mined not to know anything among you, save 
Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." Has not this 
been the keynote to the best sermons of the 
best preachers ever since ? Is not that the most 
powerful sermon which is the most luminous 
with Christ? Depend upon it, my friends, that 
the pulpit, the theological seminary, the Sabbath 
school, and the printed volume which God owns 



JESUS ONLY 99 

with the richest success are those which present 
most prominently " no man, save Jesus only." 

We open our New Testament and we discover 
in its earliest pages a wonderful Child. It is a 
childhood that savors not of this world ; it has a 
celestial flavor about it. At the age of twelve the 
Lad is astonishing the rabbis in the temple by 
His questions and His modest, sagacious an- 
swers. He opens the secret of His life when of 
His wondering mother He inquires, " Wist ye 
not that I must be about my Father's business ?" 
Over the next eighteen years there hangs a thin 
veil through which we rather dimly discern a 
guileless young man toiling at the humble, honest 
trade of a carpenter; the only record of it is that 
He " increased in favor with God and man." The 
greatest of our American Presidents found it to 
his advantage that he was cradled on the hard 
rocks of poverty, and was reared among the 
"plain people," with whom he kept in constant 
touch through his whole grand career. With an 
infinite wisdom Jesus of Nazareth chose to be 
born among the poor and never aimed to rise 
beyond the poor. When, in after years, some of 
the dignitaries of church or state offered Him 
some attentions, He put on no airs and made no 
sycophantic homage to them in return. He 



L.of 



ioo A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

knew that He was higher than the highest, yet 
loved to stoop as low as the lowliest. When He 
entered upon His public ministry and received 
the ordinance of baptism, it was preceded by no 
repentance of sin or regeneration by the Holy 
Spirit. Neither of these experiences was need- 
ful to a person who " did no sin, neither was guile 
found in His mouth." 

The three years of His marvelous ministry are 
all condensed into the one simple, matchless line 
— " He went about doing goody Sorrow was the 
appeal to which He always opened His ear; 
suffering was the surest passport to His kind 
attention ; sin He infinitely abhorred, but the 
sinner Fie pitied and loved with an infinite com- 
passion. His simple purpose was to create anew 
our poor sin-cursed race, and to lift that race up 
to God. As a teacher He had an unique origi- 
nality : He spoke by authority, and not as the 
scribes or the savants. Untaught Himself in any 
academy or university like those of Athens, He 
floods the world with a knowledge as much more 
profound than the philosophy of Socrates or 
Plato as the Atlantic is deeper than the wayside 
pool. His telescope reaches into eternity ! Look 
also at His works of love, which are really no 
tasks to Him ; at His miracles of sight-restoring, 



JESUS ONLY 101 

health-recovering and death-conquering, all of 
which came as easy to Him as the lifting of His 
finger and the opening of His lips! What 
manner of man was this, that even the winds 
and the sea obeyed Him? His life is power 
personified ; it is benevolence on foot ; it is holi- 
ness filling every spot He touches with the at- 
mosphere of the celestial climes. 

See, too, how, without hardening Himself 
against sorrow, He takes the sorrows of others 
into His own bosom. No little annoyances pro- 
voke Him to petty displays of passion ; no stu- 
pendous agony shakes the constancy of the hand 
that holds the bitter cup to His own lips. As a 
lamb He goeth to the slaughter, and as a sheep 
before its shearers is dumb, so He opens not His 
mouth. He willingly consents to die the "just 
for the unjust," when the latent power of His 
right arm might have laid Pilate and his ruffian 
crew in stiffened silence on the pavement of their 
judgment hall. He is willing to die that a dy- 
ing world of sinners might live ; " and when He 
hangs upon the cross a drooping flower of inno- 
cence," and the earth shudders with horror at the 
sight of such barbarities, a heathen soldier can- 
not refuse the involuntary confession, " Truly 
this was the Son of God." 



102 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

Did such another being as this ever tread our 
old sinning and sobbing world? Does history 
— sacred or profane — record such a wonderful 
career ? Search through all the annals of human 
kind, in all lands and ages, and you will find no 
man that answers to this description but one! 
As the three disciples saw Him lifted o'er the 
mount, His face shining as the sun and the rai- 
ment of His character white as the light, so has 
the world beheld Him ever since ; in all the uni- 
verse there has been and there is but one such 
personage ; it is Jesus only ! 

I have come to preach this Jesus to you to- 
day. Before me are many immortal souls who 
have brought hither certain troubles and difficul- 
ties, certain sorrows and spiritual wants. They 
have come to inquire : Who will show me any 
good ? who will help me ? Here, for instance, is 
a person who is not quite satisfied with himself; 
nay, he is thoroughly dissatisfied. If I should 
bluntly tell him that he is a great sinner and 
wicked enough to deserve an eternal condem- 
nation, he might resent it and throw back the 
retort, " I am as good as you, sir." But in his 
secret heart he knows that he is far from what 
he ought to be, and would frankly acknowledge, 
" I don't pretend to be a religious man." He 



JESUS ONLY 103 

admits that he is not prepared to die ; and some- 
times the thought of dying in his present condi- 
tion sends a shiver over him. To-day he is yet in 
his sins, unforgiven and unconverted, with a tre- 
mendous score running up against him on God's 
record-book. " How shall I clear off that score 
against me, and make a new departure into a 
better life ?" — the old question, you see, " What 
shall I do to be saved ?" 

If you sincerely wish to be saved, there is a 
way to be saved. Repentance of your sins, how- 
ever sincere, is not enough. Regret for sin in 
the past will not atone for it, nor keep you from 
sin in the future. Repentance is essential, is in- 
dispensable, but it is not enough to save your 
soul. It would be like a man's quitting a leaky 
boat at sea with no better one in sight ; you may 
leave the swamping boat only to be swallowed up 
in the deep. What you need is a positive per- 
sonal work wrought for you and wrought within 
you. There is One who can do this work, and 
one only. Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh 
away the sin of the world, — if the sin of the 
world, then your sins. The atonement He made 
for your guilt on the cross was perfect ; He 
obeyed the demands of God's broken law per- 
fectly ; He wrought out His work of redemption 



104 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

perfectly, and no man need perish for want of an 
atonement. But in order to receive your share 
of the benefit of that work you are required to 
go directly to Jesus Christ. Your Bible is valu- 
able to you chiefly as a guide to Jesus Christ. 
Prayer is availing to you mainly as a means of 
approaching God in Christ. If you are thirsty, 
a cup — whether of coarse pottery or chased 
silver — is of value to you only as the utensil for 
bringing the water to your parched lips. The 
cup alone and empty would be a mockery. The 
sincerest prayer for salvation is an empty cup, 
unless it become a channel through which shall 
flow your confession and your desires toward 
Christ, and pardoning grace shall flow back to 
you from Christ. Whoever would have his sins 
blotted out and a new heart created in him, must 
go to Jesus only. And if the means which he is 
employing — the Bible, the sermons, the prayers, 
or any other means — become his chief reliance, 
then they are a bane rather than a blessing. 
There is none who takes away sin save Jesus 
only. There is one way, and but one way to be 
saved, and the sooner you reach it the better. 

If you should happen to be at the Grand Cen- 
tral Railway Station in New York when the Eas- 
tern express train is about starting, you would 



JESUS ONLY 105 

see a certain number of people entering the cars 
that are labeled, " For Boston." The doors of 
those cars stand open ; the passengers enter and 
dispose themselves for the journey. They take 
it for granted that the station master has directed 
them rightly; and they do not run round in- 
quiring if those be the right cars, or if they are 
safe and are likely to keep to the track. They 
have - made up their minds to go to Boston, and 
they have faith enough in the directors of the 
company and in its rolling stock to take the pre- 
scribed cars and trust their lives there. " There 
are a million of people in New York," you might 
say; " there are only a half-dozen cars provided." 
Very true; but there is room enough on that 
train for all the people of New York who desire 
to start for Boston at that hour and by that route. 
That train carries those who come to it and no 
others. If you shall desire to reach Boston and 
yet fail to come to the station, or if you fail to 
procure the required ticket at the station, it is not 
the fault of the railway company that you do not 
get to Boston. 

Pray do not think that this illustration belittles 
our solemn theme. I simply aim to draw your 
mind's eye to the glorious truth that Jesus Christ 
has " opened a new and living way " to escape 



io6 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

from the " City of Destruction " (as Bunyan 
phrases it) to the city of God. Every vehicle 
that bears the inscription, " He that believeth on 
the Lord Jesus Christ hath everlasting life," is 
the right one for you to take. " Is it safe ?" 
Myriads of penitent sinners have reached heaven 
by that road ; try it ! "I am ashamed to con- 
fess that I have not the means to procure a 
ticket." Yes; but one is offered to you gratu- 
itously if you will accept it on certain conditions. 
At infinite cost our loving Redeemer has opened 
this way, and has provided the conveyances. " I 
am the way, the truth, and the life; whosoever 
cometh unto Me, shall in no wise be cast out." 
You are to come to Him only, obey His direc- 
tions, trust your immortal soul to His keeping, 
and render to Him your heart's service and your 
unending gratitude. 

When Jesus Christ paid the ransom of your 
soul He took away its guilt and condemnation. 
When He provided what, without irreverence, 
we may call " the gospel train " and opened wide 
its doors, He took away all your foolish and 
wicked excuses. When you break away from 
your favorite sins and come to Him in honest 
contrition and offer to do His will, He will take 
away your wicked heart. And every furlong 



JESUS ONLY 107 

that you go onward with Him, He will take away 
your doubts and lift off your heavy burden ; and 
when you reach that unbridged river we call 
death, He will take away your fears, and land 
you safely on the shining shore, and of all the 
countless multitude you will find there, not one 
but will gratefully acknowledge that they were 
saved by Jesus only. 

Perhaps one reason why you are not yet a 
Christian is that you have been mistaken as to 
what you ought to do, and just how to do it. 
Your experience may have been similar to that 
of the woman to whom a faithful minister once 
said : — 

" Have you been in the habit of attending 
church ?" 

" Yes, I have been to every church in town ; 
but the little comfort I get soon goes away again, 
and leaves me as bad as before." 

" Do you read the Bible at home ?" 

"Sir, I am always reading the Bible; some- 
times I get a little comfort, but it soon leaves me 
as wretched as ever." 

" Have you prayed for peace ?" 

" Oh, sir, I am praying all the day long ; some- 
times I get a little peace after praying, but I soon 
lose it. I am a miserable woman." 



108 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

" Now, madam, when you went to church, or 
prayed, or read your Bible, did you rely on these 
means to give you comfort ?" 

" I think I did." 

" To whom did you pray ?" 

" To God, sir ; to whom else should I pray ?" 

" Now, read this verse, ' Come unto Me and I 
will give you rest.' Jesus said this. Have you 
gone to Jesus for rest ?" 

The lady looked amazed, and tears welled up 
into her eyes. Light burst in upon her heart 
like unto the light that flooded Mount Hermon 
on the transfiguration morn. Everything else 
that she had been looking at — church, Bible, 
mercy seat, and minister — all disappeared, and 
to her wondering, believing eyes there remained 
no man, save Jesus only. She was liberated from 
years of bondage on the spot. The scales fell 
from her eyes and the spiritual fetters from her 
soul. Jesus only could do that work of deliver- 
ance ; but He did not do it until she looked to 
Him alone. 

This incident reached us during the first years 
of my ministry. With this " open secret " in my 
hand, I approached the first Roman Catholic 
that ever attended upon my preaching. He had 
turned his troubled eyes for a long time to the 



JESUS ONLY 109 

Holy Virgin and to sainted martyrs in the cal- 
ender. He had been often to a priest ; never to 
a Saviour. I set before him Jesus only. He 
looked up and saw the Lamb of God that taketh 
away the sin of the world. " My Romish 
mother,'' said he to me, " would burn up my 
Bible if she knew I had one in my house." But 
she could not burn out the blessed Jesus from his 
emancipated and happy heart. 

Next I took this simple revelation to a poor 
invalid of three score and ten. His sight was 
failing, and the vision of his mind was as blurred 
and dim as the vision of his body. I set before 
him, in my poor way, Jesus only. The old man 
could hardly see the little grandchild who read 
aloud to him. But he could see Jesus with the 
eye of faith. The patriarch who had hardened 
under seventy years of sin became a little child. 
The skepticism of a lifetime vanished when the 
Holy Spirit revealed to his searching, yearning 
look the Divine form of a Saviour crucified. 

I never forgot these lessons learned in my min- 
isterial boyhood. From that time to this I have 
found that the only sure way of bringing light 
and peace to anxious inquirers is to direct them 
away from themselves, away from ritualities and 
stereotyped forms, away from agencies of every 



no A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

kind, away from everything save Jesus only. 
John the Baptist held the essence of the gospel on 
his tongue when he cried out, " Behold the Lamb 
of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." 
My anxious friend, be assured that you never will 
find pardon for the past and hope for the future ; 
you never will know how to live or be prepared 
to die until you look to Jesus only. 

Here is a hint, too, for desponding Christians. 
You are harassed with doubts. Without are 
fightings and within are fears. Why? Because 
you have tried to live on frames and feelings, and 
they ebb and flow like the seatide. You have 
rested on past experiences and not on a present 
Saviour. You have looked at yourself too much, 
and not to Him who was made to you righteous- 
ness and full redemption. Do you long for light, 
peace, strength, assurance, and joy ? Then do 
your duty, and look to Jesus only. 

When the godly-minded Oliphant was on his 
dying bed, they read to him that beautiful passage 
in the seventh chapter of Revelation, " And God 
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." (It is 
the passage which poor Burns could never read 
with a dry eye.) The old man exclaimed : " Per- 
haps that is so. The Bible tells me that there is 
no weeping in heaven ; but I know I shall cry 



JESUS ONLY in 

the first time I see my Saviour." He was right. 
And it will be so with all of us who come off 
more than conquerors. The first object that will 
enchain our eyes on entering the gates of glory 
will not be the jeweled walls or the shining ranks 
of the seraphim. It will not be the parent who 
loves us or the pastor who pointed out the way 
of life. But amid the ten thousand wonders of 
that .wonderful world of light and joy the be- 
liever's eye, in its first enrapturing vision, will 
" see no man, save Jesus only." 



VII 

RIGHT VIEWS OF THINGS 



VII 

RIGHT VIEWS OF THINGS 
"Thou hast well seen.'' — Jeremiah i. 12. 

There is a right way and a wrong way of 
looking at almost everything. Some persons 
seem to have no eye for beauty ; and others see 
every object through a distorted vision. To 
such persons one of Turner's fine landscapes is 
merely so much paint and canvas ; to a man like 
Ruskin it is a masterpiece of golden sunlight, 
bathing field and forest with its splendors. 
Niagara is a disappointment to many on a first 
view; the mighty cataract gradually educates 
the eye to a right conception of its crumbling 
cliff of snow-white waters shot through with 
emerald. 

" Thou hast well seen " were God's words to 
Jeremiah when He called him to be a prophet to 
the people of Israel. The modest young man 
had just said, " I cannot speak, for I am a child." 
The Lord touches his mouth and inspires him 
with the gift of words. He then tests the accu- 

"5 



n6 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

racy of his vision by the question, " What seest 
thou ?" Jeremiah does not reply, " I see a bit of 
wood," or " I see a staff" ; his answer is, " I see a 
rod of an almond tree." This was just what the 
Lord meant that the young prophet should see. 
The almond was a tree of rapid growth which 
put forth its blossoms early in the spring ; it was 
a type of speedy action. As Jeremiah had shown 
his quickness of apprehension and accuracy of 
discernment, God commended his answer and 
said unto him, " Thou hast well seen." 

It is vastly important that you and I should 
seek for spiritual discernment; for many of our 
joys and many of our sorrows proceed from our 
method of looking at those things which most 
concern our peace. How differently, for example, 
the Lord Jesus Christ appears to different eyes. 
Long ago it was predicted that the Messiah 
would be to many as a root out of dry ground, 
having no form or comeliness. When they shall 
see Him, there is no beauty that they should de- 
sire Him; He will be despised and rejected of 
men. When Jesus came, therefore, to His own, 
they received Him not. As many as beheld Him 
rightly and welcomed Him, to them gave He the 
precious privilege to become the children of God. 
To all such, in every age and land, He is the 



RIGHT VIEWS OF THINGS 117 

chiefest among ten thousand, and the altogether 
lovely. Jesus Christ never changes. The differ- 
ence between the thoughtless sinner and the same 
person after he is regenerated is that now he 
looks at Christ with a new eye, and has dis- 
covered Him to be the very Saviour that he 
needs. 

Some people look at Jehovah only as a con- 
suming fire, and are struck through with despair. 
Others go to the opposite extreme and see in 
Him only an infinite goodness and tender mercy ; 
such are in danger of becoming blind to the sin- 
fulness of sin, and they easily slide away into a 
belief in universal salvation. The man who 
magnifies God's mercy at the expense of His 
justice, and who does not believe that God will 
punish unrepented sin as it deserves, has not 
" well seen." He will discover his delusion, at 
his terrible cost, on the " last great day." Those 
wise men in the Westminster Assembly saw the 
Divine attributes in their right proportion when 
they framed that wonderfully comprehensive an- 
swer — " God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal and 
unchangeable in His being, wisdom, power, holi- 
ness, justice, goodness and truth." 

I. We are all apt to make egregious mistakes 
when we look at our heavenly Father's provi- 



u8 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

dential dealings. Even some Christians are be- 
trayed into a heathenish habit of talking about 
" good luck " and " bad fortune," and using other 
expressions that convey the idea that this life is a 
game of chance. Blind unbelief may be expected 
to err, and to scan God's work as either a riddle 
or a muddle. A Christian who has had his eyes 
opened ought to know better than to make such 
mistakes. Yet how prone we are to regard many 
of God's dealings in a wrong light and to call 
them by wrong names ! We speak of things as 
afflictions which are really blessings in disguise. 
We congratulate people on gaining what turns 
out to be a terrible snare or worse than a serious 
loss. Quite as often we condole with them over 
occurrences which are about to yield to them 
blessings more precious than gold. The patri- 
arch Jacob evidently thought that he was a fair 
subject for commiseration when he groaned out 
in his grief, " Me have ye bereaved of my chil- 
dren : Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye 
will take Benjamin away : all these things are 
against me." His dim vision could not foresee 
that happy evening when the returning caravan 
from Egypt would bring to him Simeon and 
Benjamin, and the thrilling announcement that 
the long-lost Joseph was governor over all the 



RIGHT VIEWS OF THINGS 119 

realm of Pharaoh. He had not " well seen " 
what sort of a God he had once vowed to serve. 

Let us hesitate before we condole with a 
brother who is under the chastisement of our 
loving Father in heaven. Be careful how you 
condole with a man who has lost his money and 
saved his good name, or congratulate the man 
who has made a million at the expense of his 
piety.- When a Christian is toppled over from a 
dizzy and dangerous height, and " brought down 
to hard pan," he is brought down to the solid 
rock at the same time. In the valley of humilia- 
tion he has more of the joy of God's counten- 
ance and wears more of the herb called " heart's- 
ease " in his bosom than he ever did in the days 
of his giddy prosperity. Sickness has often 
brought to a man spiritual recovery; suffering 
has often wrought out for him an exceeding 
weight of glory. 

I have seen people condole tenderly with a 
weeping mother whose child has flown away 
home to heaven ; but they never thought of con- 
doling with her over a living child who was a 
frivolous slave of fashion, or a dissipated sensu- 
alist, or a wayward son, the " heaviness of his 
mother." A hundred times over have I pitied 
more the parent of a living sorrow than the 



120 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

parent of a departed joy. Spare your tears from 
the darlings who are safe in the arms of Jesus, 
and spend them over the living who are yet 
dead in sin and sheer impenitence. Let us learn 
to see things rightly, and call them by their 
right names. We often drape our real blessings 
with a pall and decorate our dangerous tempta- 
tions with a garland. Let us all pray for spiritual 
discernment and often be putting up the petition, 
" Lord, open Thou our eyes." Then we may 
discover that this life is only a training school 
for a higher and a better one ; then we shall see a 
Father's smile behind the darkest cloud ; and at 
the end of the pilgrimage of duty it will be one 
of the raptures of heaven to behold the King in 
His beauty, and to know even as we have been 
known. 

II. Let me, in the next place, remind you that 
if we possessed more spiritual discernment we 
would not so often torment ourselves with sinful 
anxieties about the future. Our loving Lord 
knew what was in man when He reiterated His 
remonstrances against borrowing trouble in ad- 
vance, and when He said, " Be not therefore 
anxious for the morrow : for the morrow will be 
anxious for itself. Sufficient unto the day is the 
evil thereof." Worry is not only a sin against 



RIGHT VIEWS OF THINGS 121 

God, it is a sin against our own peace. It some- 
times amounts to a slow suicide. Honest work, 
however hard, seldom hurts us ; it is worry that 
corrodes and kills. 

There is only one practical remedy for this 
deadly sin of anxiety, and that is to take short 
views. Faith is content to live " from hand to 
mouth," enjoying each blessing from God as it 
comes. This perverse spirit of worry runs off 
and gathers some anticipated troubles and throws 
them into the cup of mercies and turns them to 
vinegar. A bereaved parent sits down by the 
newly-made grave of a beloved child and sorrow- 
fully says to herself, " Well, I have only one more 
left, and one of these days he may go off to live 
in a home of his own, or he may be taken away ; 
and if he dies, my house will be desolate and my 
heart utterly broken." Now who gave that weep- 
ing mother permission to use the word "if"? 
Is not her trial sore enough now, without over- 
loading it with an imaginary trial ? And if her 
strength breaks down it will be simply because 
she is not satisfied with letting God afflict her; 
she tortures herself with imagined afflictions of 
her own. If she could but take a short view, 
she would see a living child yet spared to her, to 
be loved and enjoyed and lived for. Then, instead 



122 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

of having two sorrows, she would have one great 
possession to set over against a great loss ; her 
duty to the living would be not only a relief to 
her anguish, but the best tribute she could pay to 
the departed. 

That is a short view which only takes in im- 
mediate duty to be done, the immediate tempta- 
tion to be met, and the immediate sorrow to be 
carried. My friend, if you have money enough 
to-day for your daily wants and something for 
God's treasury, don't torment yourself with the 
idea that you or yours may yet get into an alms- 
house. If your children cluster around your 
table, enjoy them, train them, trust them to God, 
without racking yourself with a dread that the 
little ones may some time be carried off by scarlet 
fever, or the older ones may yet be ill-married or 
may fall into disgrace. Faith carries present loads 
and meets present assaults and feeds on present 
promises, and commits the future to a faithful 
God. Its song is : — 

" Keep Thou my feet ; I do not ask to see 
The distant scene ; one step's enough for me." 

We shall always take that one step more 
wisely and firmly and successfully if we keep 
our eye on that only. The man who is climb- 



RIGHT VIEWS OF THINGS 123 

ing the Alps has but to follow his guide and set 
his foot on the right spot before him. This is the 
way you and I must let Christ lead, and have 
Him so close to us also that it will be but a short 
way to behold Him. Sometimes young Chris- 
tians say to me, " I am afraid to make a public 
confession of Christ; I may not hold out." 
They have nothing to do with holding out ; it is 
simply their duty to hold on. When future trials 
and perils come their Master will give them help 
for the hour if they only make sure that they 
are His. The short view they need to take is a 
close, clear view of their own spiritual wants, and 
a distinct view of Jesus as ever at hand to meet 
those wants. If the fishermen of Galilee had 
worried themselves over the hardships they were 
to encounter they might have been frightened 
out of their apostleships and their eternal crowns. 
We ministers need to guard againt this malig- 
nant devil of worry. It torments one pastor with 
a dread lest, if he preach certain truths boldly, 
he may offend his rich pew holders and drive 
them away. Let him take care of his conscience, 
and his Master will take care of him. Another 
is worried lest his cruse may run dry and his 
barrel fail. But his cruse has not yet run dry. 
Oh, no ! it is his faith that is running low. Some 



124 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

of us, at the beginning of a year's work, are 
tempted to overload ourselves with the anticipa- 
tion of how much we have to do ; we need not 
worry if we will only remember that during the 
whole year there will be only one working day, 
and that is — to-day. Sufficient to each day is the 
labor thereof. 

Once more we say — let us take short views. 
Let us not climb the high wall till we get to it, 
or fight the battle till it opens, or shed tears over 
sorrows that may never come, or lose the joys 
and blessings that we have by the sinful fear that 
God will take them away from us. We need all 
our strength and all the grace God can give us 
for to-day's burdens and to-day's battle. To- 
morrow belongs to our heavenly Father. I 
would not know its secrets if I could. It is far 
better to know whom we trust, and that He is 
able to keep all we commit to Him until the last 
great day. 

" Why forecast the trials of life 

With such sad and grave persistence, 
And look and watch for a crowd of ills 
That as yet have no existence ? 

" Strength for to-day is all we need, 
For we never will see to-morrow ; 
When it comes, the morrow will be a to-day, 
With its measure of joy or sorrow." 



RIGHT VIEWS OF THINGS 125 

III. If a right spiritual discernment tends to 
correct false views of God and His providence, 
and to repress sinful anxieties, it will also check 
our impatience in regard to the issue of God's 
wise dealings and discipline. " I never let bairns 
or fools see my pictures until they are done," 
said a Scotch artist to me, quoting a familiar 
proverb of his countrymen. As the artist was 
unwilling to have any judgment pronounced on 
his work until it was completed, so our heavenly 
Father bids us possess our souls in patience. 
"What I do thou knowest not now; but thou 
shalt know hereafter." We must wait and see. 
This world is but a preparatory school in which 
character is on the easel or under the chisel. 
God's hand sometimes lays on dark colors ; his 
chisel often cuts deep. No trial of our faith is 
joyous, but grievous ; nevertheless afterwards it 
may work out the eternal weight of glory. Now 
we know but " in part," and what we do discern 
is seen through a glass darkly. Why the most 
pleasant room in our dwelling is turned into a 
hospital — why the pillow in that little empty crib 
is unpressed to-day — why that income on which 
so many mouths depended is now reduced — 
why this or that staff is broken, our poor blind, 
aching hearts cannot understand. God keeps His 



126 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

own secrets. The only answer which He vouch- 
safes to us now is, " All things work together for 
good to them that love Me." Impatient and re- 
bellious as we may be, we cannot displace God's 
hand from the canvas ; there is no help for us but 
to wait until the picture is completed. Some of 
the colors He is laying into our lives are fright- 
fully somber; but by and by in the revealing 
light of the last day they may be only a back- 
ground on which faith and submissive trust will 
stand out in hues of golden glory. It is the 
duty of " bairns " to sit still and practice docility. 

" When my boy with eager questions, 
Asking how, and where, and when, 
Taxes all my store of wisdom, 

Asking o'er and o'er again 
Questions oft to which the answers 

Give to others still the key, 
I have said, to teach him patience, 
'Wait, my little boy, and see.' 

" And the words I taught my darling, 

Taught to me a lesson sweet ; 
Once when all the world seemed darkness, 

And the storm about me beat, 
In the ' children' s room ' I heard him, 

With a child' s sweet mimicry, 
To the baby brother's questions 

Saying wisely, ' Wait and see.' 



RIGHT VIEWS OF THINGS 127 

" Like an angel's tender chiding 

Came the darling' s words to me 
Though my Father's ways were hidden 

Bidding me still wait and see. 
What are we but restless children, 

Ever asking what shall be. 
And the Father, in His wisdom, 

Gently bids us ' wait and see.' " 

I am ready to confess that it is not from the 
open assaults of infidelity or from the skeptical 
pages of the Strausses or Spencers that the 
severest strain has come upon our faith. It is 
from the mysterious permissions of Divine Provi- 
dence that we are oftenest in danger of hav- 
ing that faith shipwrecked. We not only turn 
cowards in the dark, but like fools we doubt 
whether there ever will be a day-dawn. In such 
hours it is wise to bring in the lamp of that 
bright passage of the thirtieth Psalm : " Weep- 
ing may endure for a night, but joy cometh in 
the morning." The original Hebrew is far more 
forcible ; it literally reads, " In the evening sorrow 
lodgeth, but at the day-dawn cometh shouting." 
The " shouting " will be raised by the discovery 
of what was in existence all the while, and that 
is God's marvelous wisdom and unfailing love. 
I once spent a night on the summit of Mount 
Righi, and the darkness was so dense that I 



128 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

could not see a single yard from my window. 
But when the sun arose the polished mirror of 
Lake Lucerne spread beneath me, and the icy 
coronets of the Jungfrau and the Finsteraarhorn 
glittered in the rosy beams. They had been 
there all through the night waiting for the un- 
foldings of the day-spring from on high. 

A great deal of our work in this world may 
be called night-work. Weary with rowing, we 
even get frightened by the apparition of the 
Master, and, like the disciples, cry out, " It is a 
ghost !" — until He reveals Himself in the words, 
" Be of good cheer ; It is I ; be not afraid !" 
The history of every discovery of new truth, of 
every enterprise of benevolence, of every Chris- 
tian reform, and of almost every church revival is 
the history of long working, watching, and wait- 
ing through seasons of dark discouragement. 
" We have toiled all the night, and have taken 
nothing," was the lament of the tired, hungry, 
and sleepy disciples. But in the early gray of 
the day-break they espy the Master on the 
beach ; the net is cast afresh, and lo ! it swarms 
with a shoal that breaks through the meshes. 
So doth our Lord test His children before He 
blesses them. The lesson for every pastor, every 
missionary, every teacher, every reformer, and 



RIGHT VIEWS OF THINGS 129 

every sorely-tried child of God is in these 
heaven-taught words, " I wait for the Lord, . . . 
and in His word do I hope. My soul waiteth 
for the Lord more than they that watch for the 
morning." 

IV. We come back, in closing, to the point 
whence we set out — that there is a right way, and 
a wrong way of looking at all things. To the 
eye that has spiritual discernment this world is 
mainly an avenue to that one which lieth beyond 
it. Talents, wealth, and influence are simply 
loans that are to be held in trust for God. Social 
promotion signifies a more commanding position 
in which to serve the Master. A Christianized 
eye sees in money just so much bread for the 
hungry, just so many Bibles for the godless, just 
so many lifts of the outcast and degraded — as well 
as innocent and refining enjoyments for one's 
own household. My friend, if thou findest the 
" image and superscription " of Christ on every 
dollar you earn, "thou hast well seen." To a 
truly regenerated soul all things become new; 
and we may well doubt the genuineness and the 
depth of that conversion which does not bring 
an altered estimate of everything earthly. Faith 
breaks the charm of this world and adds a charm 
to the better world. 
9 



130 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

Are there any here who desire to have their 
spiritual vision purged? I would commend to 
them the example of that blind man who came 
and besought Jesus to touch him ; for he fancied 
that a simple touch of the miracle-worker would 
restore his sight. Jesus led him along through 
the streets and " out of the town " ; and then, 
putting spittle on his closed eyes, He inquired, 
" Do you see anything ?" The poor man replied, 
" I see men ; for I behold them as trees, walking." 
The Master again lays His hands upon his eyes 
and bids him look up; he looks and seeth the 
bright earth round him and the Son of God 
standing at his side. Even so it may be with 
you, if you will permit that Divine Friend to lead 
you " out of town " where sin and self have 
tasked and troubled you, and will intrust your- 
self to His restoring power. He will touch the 
eye of your soul. Truth will become clearer. 
Faith will become stronger. The old darkness 
will pass away, and all things will become new. 
" Thou hast well seen " when thou dost behold 
Jesus Christ as the Lord of thy life, His service 
thy sweetest occupation, and His presence thy 
perpetual joy. 



VIII 
THE DOVE THAT FOUND REST 



VIII 

THE DOVE THAT FOUND REST 

" Then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in 
unto him into the ark." — Genesis viii. 9. 

We can picture to ourselves this scene. For 
forty days the keel of the ark has rested on the 
summit of Mount Ararat ; but on every side 
stretches a melancholy waste of waters. Not 
an inch of dry ground is visible, nor has been for 
over twenty weeks. Noah wearies of his im- 
prisonment, and, like a long voyager, is hungry 
for a sight of land. He can see none from his 
single porthole; but perhaps the birds in his 
floating menagerie can find some. So he sends 
forth a raven which flies back and forth — feeding 
perhaps on the floating offal, and lighting occa- 
sionally on the ark. The raven takes care of 
itself, but brings him no information. 

Then he lets fly a dove to see if the waters 
are abated from off the face of the ground. 
But the dove finds no rest for the sole of her 
foot ; nor is there within her reach such granifer- 

133 



134 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

ous food as she could eat Weary with her flight 
and finding no tree to alight on, the poor bird 
comes back to her old home. Noah watches the 
tired little creature as she flutters back to the 
window of the ark. He puts forth his hand and 
catches the weary bird and draws her in unto 
him, and gives her welcome. 

As we watch the pretty creature eating her 
seed, and then curling her head under her glossy 
plumage and dropping to sleep, we are set upon 
a meditation about that bird. It represents a 
wandering soul. Whose soul ? Yours, my 
brother sinner ? it is probably a picture of your 
past experience. Like that wandering bird, you 
have flown far and looked in many directions, 
but you have not found rest. You have tried one 
place after another, one pursuit after another, one 
pleasure after another, but none of them gave 
you solid peace. None of them satisfied the 
hunger of your immortal soul. None of them 
made you feel safe for this world or for the next. 
Perhaps you tried money and all it could buy, 
but it could not purchase peace for your dis- 
quieted spirit. Perhaps you flew up on some 
perch of ambition ; and then found yourself as 
sadly off as that rich and distinguished English 
statesman to whom a friend wished a " Happy 



THE DOVE THAT FOUND REST 135 

New Year!" and whose melancholy reply was, " It 
had need to be a happier one than the last year, 
for I did not see a single happy day in it !" What- 
ever you may have tried, it furnished your soul 
no substantial rest. The very idea of rest im- 
plies something solid and substantial underneath 
you. No mind can be at rest while tortured by 
an uneasy conscience or by the dread of losing 
its most cherished treasures. What could you 
know of peaceful repose when one of your own 
household was lying at the point of death in the 
next room ? or when the cry of " fire !" was 
ringing in the street beneath your window ? The 
human soul, like the body, must have a sense of 
security before it can realize a perfect rest. Does 
this world afford you that? Can your soul be 
insured by it against disquietude, disappointment, 
disaster, and the havoc of death ? Does that 
weary bird, your heart, ever find any rest for the 
sole of the foot? 

Answer this question honestly, all ye who have 
tried hard to draw a gill of happiness out of a 
whole cask of sensual pleasures. Answer this, 
ye who have built up lofty expectations of wealth, 
or professional success, or social eminence, or 
any other of this world's attractive and inviting 
perches. When did a man ever get himself 



136 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

snugly fixed and determine to nestle down amid 
his creature-comforts, that God has not routed 
him up again ? This world is not a Christian's 
rest; no, nor an impenitent sinner's either. God 
has vetoed that. You may rear, for example, 
your tasteful residence, and decorate it with the 
most elegant products of art ; you may gather 
round your fireside a cheerful household, who 
shall sing a melodious " Sweet home " to your 
affections; but just as surely as you let the dove 
of your heart bear its whole weight on this frail 
bush, the bush will break, sooner or later, and 
break when you least expect it ! Perhaps the 
flames will destroy your dwelling, or bankruptcy 
bring it "to the hammer," or the angel of death, 
on its mysterious mission, may alight on the 
couch or the crib that contains your treasures. 
Mayhap domestic strifes or disappointments may 
embitter your cup, and you may discover that no 
wall can be built so high or so strong as to wall 
out trouble and sorrow. 

Well — if the mind cannot find abiding happi- 
ness in any of the perishable things of earth, 
neither can your immortal spirit find rest in any 
mere human reliance — whether human opinion, 
human prayer, or human promises. Have you 
ever obtained an assurance of salvation on the 



THE DOVE THAT FOUND REST 137 

ground either of your best purposes or best per- 
formances ? Are you willing to risk the everlast- 
ing future of your soul on either what any man 
has done for you or you have ever done for 
yourself? Pushing the probe in deeper, let me 
ask you in all kindness — will your present style 
of thinking and living satisfy conscience and 
satisfy God, and will it secure to you spiritual 
health and a peaceful death and an immortality 
of glory ? Ah, I see you shake your head, and 
a shadow passes over your countenance. Then 
you are not at rest ! You do not feel safe. You 
cannot bear your whole weight on any brittle 
spider's web. No ! And God does not mean 
that your uneasy and sin-troubled soul shall find 
rest anywhere outside of that ark which redeem- 
ing love has provided. Millions upon millions 
have flown from one direction to another, like 
Noah's dove, and found that this wide world 
from pole to pole " had not for them a home." 
They have been forced to the same confession as 
Lord Tennyson's gifted young friend, Arthur 
Hallam, when he exclaimed : " Lord, I have 
viewed this world all over. I have tried how 
this thing or that will fit my spirit. I can find 
nothing to rest on; for nothing here hath any 
rest itself. Oh, blessed Jesus — center of light 



138 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

and strength ! — the fullness of all things — I come 
back and join myself to Thee, and to Thee 
alone !" 

" I heard the voice of Jesus say, 
' Come unto me and rest ; 
Lay down, thou weary one, lay down 
Thy head upon my breast !' " 

When Noah's dove could find no rest for 
the sole of her foot, whither did she fly? We 
read that she " returned unto him into the ark." 
She saw nothing to alight upon anywhere else, 
and so she spread her weary wings toward the 
huge vessel on the peak of Ararat. To-day I 
sound in your ear the invitation of the Divine 
love and the Divine authority — " Return unto 
Me!" To do this you must abandon all trust 
in self-righteousness and all hope of self-salva- 
tion. To do this you must confess that you are 
a guilty wanderer — that God is right and you are 
wrong. You must renounce your past sins, how- 
ever dear to you, and break with your old habits 
and your old self. The voice to you is Return ! 
There must be no delay. The weary bird could 
bring nothing but herself; and you can bring 
nothing to Jesus Christ but a weak and wander- 
ing sinner. Don't bring your sins ; don't bring 
your excuses or apologies ; don't bring your 



THE DOVE THAT FOUND REST 139 

merits, for they are not worth the transportation. 
Bring to the compassionate Saviour yourself, just 
as you are, and just what sin has made you. The 
prodigal's rags and wretchedness were his only 
letter of recommendation. 

Whither did the dove return ? To the only 
refuge amid the whole wide waste of waters. 
There was but one. Beneath it lay a drowned 
world ; round it spread the devouring deep ! 
God has provided but one ark for your soul. 
" There is none other name under heaven given 
among men, whereby we must be saved." In this 
wide world there are many systems of religion ; 
but God has provided only one — just as He has 
created but a single sun to " rule the day." At 
that single gateway of salvation the prince must 
enter alongside of the peasant; the philosopher 
must walk in by the side of the little child. We 
seem to see that tired, homesick bird sailing along 
through the air toward the solitary ark, and 
when it gets there it finds only one window. 
There was a first, a second, and a third story in 
Noah's huge leviathan of a ship, but all the 
light was admitted through that single opening. 
Beautifully does that single window illustrate the 
illumination of the Holy Spirit. And most strik- 
ingly does it set forth that every soul that comes 



i 4 o A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

to Jesus Christ must come into a saving union 
with Him through the Holy Spirit's regenerating 
work. This vital truth our Lord announced to 
Nicodemus in that wonderful conversation which 
contains the most comprehensive body of theol- 
ogy found on any page of the Bible. 

There was only one window to the ark and 
that was open. We cannot imagine that the 
weary bird did so foolish a thing as to drive its 
head against the walls of the ark, or to alight on 
the roof, or to fly round the vessel. It wanted 
to come in, and there was only one place of en- 
trance. My troubled friend, seeking to be saved, 
can you not learn from that bird just what you 
must do ? 

A certain awakened soul was once taught 
by a bird how to find admission into the peace 
that passeth understanding through Christ Jesus. 
The late Dr. Nicolas Murray tells us that he 
was preaching, on a bright spring day, in the 
ancient church of Elizabeth. During the service 
a bird flew in through the open door, and 
sailed up to the vaulted ceiling. There sat in the 
audience an intelligent lady who had been for 
weeks under deep conviction of sin and had 
found no rest for her bewildered soul. She be- 
gan to watch the bewildered bird as it flew to one 



THE DOVE THAT FOUND REST 141 

closed window after another, and she kept saying 
to herself, " Why doesn't it see the open door ?" 
The poor thing flew round and round till it 
grew weary, and then, lowering itself toward the 
floor, it caught a view of the open door, and 
was out in an instant into the sunshine. When 
it was gone the troubled woman said to herself: " I 
have been acting just like that bird. I have been 
trying to find peace where it could not be found. 
I have tried to find escape from the bondage and 
burden of sin through windows that were closed 
against me. Christ is the door. As that bird 
escaped into the light and the sunshine, just so 
may I." And she actually found peace that day 
by a simple yielding of her weary and sin-plagued 
heart to her Saviour. 

I fear that many in this assembly have found 
no rest for their souls because they have been 
seeking it in the wrong place and by wrong 
methods ; they have flown everywhere but to the 
right spot. One has tried to reform his life, but 
was not able to regenerate his heart ; and the old 
diseases broke out again. Another has said, " If 
I read God's word and pray enough I shall find 
peace." Another has betaken himself to some 
special service of an evangelist, or has gone to 
converse with his pastor, or in a kind of forlorn 



142 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

desperation has entered an "inquiry meeting" to 
find relief. None of these is God's ark ! Noth- 
ing but life can produce life. Jesus declares : " I 
am the Way; I am the Life!" He that hath 
the Son, and he only, hath life ; and the Divine 
Spirit leads only to the almighty and the cruci- 
fied Christ. In short, oh, anxious and troubled 
soul — who art in danger of being misled by the 
devil or of being lost by delay — there is but one 
window into the ark, and that stands wide open ! 
Coming to that is faith. For faith, you must re- 
member, is not a sentiment, not an opinion ; it is 
an act. It is the act of joining your weakness to 
Christ's strength, your unworthiness to His in- 
finite merit, yourself to Himself. The obedience 
of your soul to the leading of the Holy Spirit 
brings you to Jesus Christ, and the infinite love 
puts forth the pierced hand and drazvs you in — 
as Noah drew that returning dove into the ark. 
Then comes peace, wondrous peace, such as this 
world can neither give nor take away. All the 
disquietude of this world cannot shake it. There 
is no condemnation to them who are in Christ 
Jesus. The soul fears no evil tidings ; for the 
perfect love has cast out fear. Conscience no 
longer torments ; and death no longer alarms, 
for Jesus has conquered death. Wondrous peace 



THE DOVE THAT FOUND REST 143, 

ineffable ! There is only One in all the universe 
who can bestow it, and when He does bestow it, 
all the powers of Hell cannot give it a single jar ! 
It is the peace of God, and the peace with God 
which passeth all understanding. 

" Can I do anything for you ?" said an officer 
on the battlefield, who came across a wounded 
Union soldier who lay weltering in his blood. 
" Nothing, thank you." " Shall I bring you a 
little water ?" " No, I thank you ; I am dying!' 
"Is there not something I can do; shall I not 
send some message to your friends ?" " I will 
not trouble you to do that; but there is one 
thing for which I would be much obliged. In 
my knapsack you will find a Testament. Please 
open it to the fourteenth chapter of John, and 
you will find a verse that begins with the word 
' peace.' Please read it to me." The officer got 
out the book and read : " Peace I leave with you, 
My peace I give unto you : not as the world 
giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be 
troubled, neither let it be afraid." " Thank you, 
sir," said the dying man. " I have got that 
peace ; I am going to that Saviour ; I do not want 
anything more." His fluttering spirit, like a 
home-bound dove, flew heavenward, and the 
blessed Jesus put forth His hand and sweetly 



144 A MODEL CHRISTIAN 

drew him in ! Although but an humble private 
in the army of the Lord as he was in the army 
of the land, yet he found his place among the 
crowned conquerors in glory. 

" Ten thousand times ten thousand 

In sparkling raiment bright, 
The armies of the ransomed saints 

Throng up the steeps of light : 
'Tis finished, all is finished, 

Their fight with death and sin : 
Fling open wide the golden gates, 

And let the victors in /' ' 



V\j 1 A.& 



1903 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: Oct. 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



